One hour later

Location: New Haven outpost, ten miles south of Axiom base.

Flying in the skies of Reach, a large shape descended towards a small cluster of buildings. It was a pelican. On board were two pilots and five members of the taskforce. They were Marcus, Tyler, Tanya, Alice and Stinger (Simon). They had been given orders by John to come here after reports of a disturbance. What is was, they did not know, but some officials at the main base were nervous. They feared this was the Covenant that had caused this disturbance, and they were probably right, but how many of them would be at this outpost if they had been the reason for this disturbance they did not know. What they did know, however, was that they were not receiving anything back from the outpost, even after they sent a few messages to confirm if they were okay, so something was up and they needed to find out what.

The co-pilot stood up from his seat and opened the cog pit door to the resting area. In front of him, Marcus, Tanya, Alice, Tyler and Stinger were sitting in the seats talking to one another. They all turned their heads to face him when he opened the door.

"Alright, get ready, guys," the co-pilot said to them. "We're just about to descend towards the outpost,"

The co-pilot disappeared back into the cog pit, closing the door behind him. The five taskforce members reached under their seats and took out their weapons. They were all battle rifles but they also had two fragmentation grenades each and an M6C pistol.

"Do you guys think it is the Covenant?" Tyler asked as he loaded a clip into his battle rifle.

"Most likely," Tanya replied. "I don't know anything or anyone else that can cause an entire outpost to stop responding to base,"

"She's right," Marcus piped up. "Something like this happens, the Covenant are the only ones who can be held responsible."

The group felt the craft descend and they looked out through the pelican's entrance to see the hilly and field landscape grow steadily nearer to their craft. The New Haven outpost had been built in quite a remote area, as a king of radar and scouting barrier against an attack on Reach. In recent months, it had been operational non-stop, as had all the other radar stations scattered across Reach, to warn the planet if the Covenant launched an attack. Nothing had happened since these stations had been put on high alert but the UNSC were not lowering their guard for they knew that if one little hole was made in their defences, then the Covenant could very easily exploit that hole to their advantage and make it larger until they could launch a full scale attack on the planet, and if that happened then Humanity could be finished in a matter of months.

The pelican descended further towards the ground. About four hundred feet on the ground ahead of them was a small cluster of buildings wedged between two small hills, though they looked like small cliffs like you would find in the desert, and a small field. Two of the buildings were C shaped and were placed about sixty feet from each in the middle of the cluster of buildings. Coming out of the back of both of the C shaped buildings were large square shaped sections with small radar antennae sticking out of the top of them. About twenty feet south from the two C shaped buildings was a small rectangular building, about twenty five feet long and twenty feet high, with a small cube shaped section placed in the middle of the roof of the rectangular main section of the building. A tiny dirt path led from the base out into the field, where it joined onto a small road. Nearby on the hill were five wind turbines with small power generators placed on the ground next to them. They were obviously there to power the base, and they were still spinning so this was a strange situation. If this was the Covenant, then they would usually cut off power to the base, but the turbines were still spinning, which meant that they were still working, but this was strange…even for the Covenant. Something was definitely up here and what it was could be very serious.

The pelican descended towards the ground, coming to a halt about ten feet above the ground, about forty feet from the outpost. The five taskforce members jumped down from the pelican onto the ground, keeping their weapons half-raised in case the Covenant were here and decided to launch an attack on them.

"Good luck, guys," came the pilot's voice from the cog pit as the pelican hovered back into the air. "Base'll contact you in a few minutes,"

The pelican turned and flew off back into the direction of the base. The taskforce members watched it go and disappear into the distance. The group did not have radios attached to their uniforms like the UNSC soldiers but had small radios placed in their ears, allowing them to communicate with each other and the base.

"Right," Marcus said, making the rest of the group face him. "Let's go,"

Marcus led the group towards the outpost. As they approached it, a feeling of uncertainness began to surround them. There was something wrong here. The Covenant always cut off power to a station or outpost when they attacked one so if they had attacked here, which they most likely had done, then why was the power still on knowing that this base was connected to the main UNSC stronghold just ten miles away? This was very strange and it was making the squad concerned, nervous even.

When the squad reached the edge of the outpost, Marcus raised his weapon and aimed it around the main courtyard in front of them, checking every corner to make sure no Covenant, if there were any here, were going to sneak up and attack them.

"Aright, It's clear," he told the squad. "Let's move out,"

He led the squad forward cautiously, all of them having their weapons raised and pointing them around their surroundings. As they entered the courtyard, they noticed that the large doors on the ends nearest them of the C shaped buildings were wide open. Looking inside, they saw the rooms inside the buildings were a mess with crates scattered everywhere and several shapes lying on the floor and strange marks on the walls and floor.

"What the Hell?" Tyler said to himself.

"Split up," Marcus ordered. "Me and Tanya'll go in this building-" he pointed to the C shaped building to the squad's left. "-Alice and Stinger, you guys go in the other building. Tyler you keep watch. Keep quiet and yell if you get attacked or see anything suspicious,"

They nodded and Alice and Stinger ran over to the entrance on the other building. Tyler ran over to the entrance of the left C shaped building with Tanya and Marcus and placed himself against the wall, raising his weapon out across the courtyard and keeping his finger on the trigger of his weapon. Tanya and Marcus ran into the building, but quickly stopped.

The reason: on the floor in front of them they saw what the shapes were. They were the bodies of dead workers and marines. The marks on the floor around them and on the walls were blood. Looking down the room, Marcus and Tanya saw more dead bodies and blood. A struggle had obviously taken place here, but how long ago was the real question.

"Jesus Christ!" Marcus gasped.

"What is it?" Tyler asked, looking into the room, only to see the dead bodies. "Whoa!" he said.

"A struggle has taken place here?" Tanya said. "And I have feeling that the Covenant are still in the base,"

"Question is: where?" Marcus replied. "And how many?" he added. "Tyler, you stay there. C'mon, Tanya,"

She nodded and they, cautiously, walked down the room towards a large opening on the left wall that led into a large control room. As they approached it, they saw more dead bodies lying on the floor. So the Covenant had been here for there was no one else that could have killed them but where were they and how many of them were there?

"Have you found anything yet?"

Marcus and Tanya froze on the spot, their eyes wide with terror. Their fingers were on their weapons' triggers, ready to fire. That sounded close, very close.

"Nothing yet, master," a high pitched voice replied.

"Well, continue searching!" a deep voice ordered. "We must find it,"

Marcus tiptoed quietly towards the turning on the wall that led into the square shaped section of the building; Tanya following close behind. When they reached it, Marcus stepped forward and poked his head out from behind the wall to look into the control room.

Along the walls were several large controls panels. On the back wall of the control room was a small computer screen attached to the wall that was smashed. Some of the control panels were sparking electricity, having been damaged in the struggle that had taken place earlier. Standing in front of the control panel along the back wall was a tall bulky figure with light blue armour and had a plasma rifle in his hand. It was an Elite. Around him were three smaller figures with large triangular pieces of armour sticking out of their backs and wielding plasma pistols in their hands. Grunts. The Elite was watching his three smaller squad members search through the control panels. One of the Grunts went to reach for something on a control panel but fell forward and It's arm hit a piece of the control panel that fell off with a clang.

"Watch yourselves!" the Elite barked. "Do not destroy any of this important machinery! We need to find what we are looking for! Keep searching!"

Marcus looked back at Tanya with a confused look on his face. What were they looking for? Why were they searching for something here? What could possibly be here that they wanted?

Then, as Marcus went to look out from behind the wall, one of the Grunts tried to climb onto the control panel but slipped and fell over, earning another frustrated growl from the Elite, on It's back. The Grunt's eyes, now facing the entrance to the control room, immediately saw Marcus.

"AAAHHHH! ENEMY!" it screamed, pointing over at the wall.

The Elite and other two Grunts shot round to see him standing there. The Elite growled.

"It is time to meet your end," it said and fired a barrage of light blue blasts at the wall.

Luckily, Marcus moved his head behind it just in time. The blasts hit the wall and fizzed away as they hit the wall as if they were eating away at it. The Grunts, including the one who had fallen over and spotted Marcus, fired shots from their plasma pistols at the wall as if they were hoping to break through it and hit their enemies.

Marcus blind fired a burst of ammo out from behind the wall at the Covenant squad. A yell erupted from the control room, followed by a small thud, indicating he had hit and killed a Grunt. The Elite growled in annoyance and took out a plasma grenade. It pressed It's thumb down on the orange thunderbolt, turning the grenade into a small blue fireball, and threw it towards the wall. It landed on the floor next to Marcus.

"WATCH OUT!" Tanya yelled, grabbing Marcus and pulling him away from the wall.

BOOM! The plasma grenade exploded, lighting up the whole room for a second before fading. As Marcus and Tanya lifted themselves up from the floor, the Elite and the two Grunts ran out from behind the wall and aimed their weapons at the two Humans on the floor.

"You will die along with the rest of your heretic brothers here!" the Elite said to them.

Marcus and Tanya's eyes went wide. It looked like they were goners.

Suddenly, a burst of ammo exploded behind them and the Elite was thrown backwards onto the floor. The two Grunts yelled and ran down towards the other end of the room, waving their arms about in the air in terror. Another two bursts of ammo filled the air again, killing the two remaining Grunts.

Marcus and Tanya looked behind them and saw Tyler, Stinger and Alice standing there. They ran over to them as the two got up.

"Thanks, guys," Marcus said to them as they reached them.

"It's okay," Tyler replied. "I went over to see if Alice and Stinger were okay and we heard the gunfire and came over to see what was up," he looked at the dead Elite and then the two dead Grunts. "So what do you think they were doing here?" he asked.

"Me and Tanya overhead them say they were looking for something," Marcus replied, also looking back at the dead Elite. "But what the Hell it is, I have no idea. Any of you guys?" he asked the squad.

They all shook their heads to say no. This was getting strange. They had found out who had caused this disturbance, but now they were stuck with the question of what the Covenant were looking for. What were they looking for? And why were they looking here? What could here that they possibly wanted? Something was up?

Then, the squad's ear radios came to life.

"Marcus?" came a voice from their ear radios. "Marcus, come in, this is base, over,"

Marcus placed a finger on his ear radio. "Base, this is Marcus, over,"

"Roger that. Have you found anything at the New Haven outpost?"

"We found a Covenant squad comprising of an Elite minor and three Grunts. They said they were looking for something, but…I or anyone else in my squad here knows what it could be?"

"Has anybody of high importance visited this outpost in recent days?" Tanya asked and Marcus looked at her to see she had a finger on her ear radio as well.

"Well, about two days ago, Captain McCrea went to the outpost to collect something, but it's quite classified so I don't know what it was he went to collect,"

Whilst they were talking, Stinger heard something outside. He walked to the entrance of the building and looked outside. Just as he did, a green shot flew out from the rectangular building and hit rhe wall next to him and he dived back inside the building.

"Damn it, that was close!" he exclaimed as he got up.

"What is it?" Marcus asked.

"There's a Jackal on the roof of the rectangular building," he replied.

Then, a loud whirring sound filled the air. The squad looked up at the ceiling with wide eyes as if they could see right through it. if there was a whirring sound in the air like that, then they knew it could only mean one thing.

KZK… "Marcus, what's going on?"

"We've got trouble. You'll have to report back to you later," Marcus said and he lowered his finger from his ear and reloaded his battle rifle. "Get ready," he said as he walked pat them, stopping near the entrance.

He pushed himself against the right wall and signalled to the squad to do the same. They did so, forming a line behind him with Alice behind Marcus, then Tyler, then Tanya and then Stinger bringing up the rear.

"Wait here," Marcus said to them as he stepped forward towards the building's entrance.

When he reached it, he leaned forward slightly and looked out. He could see the feet of a creature and the bottom of a silver vest that was wrapped around the creature's torso. It was a Jackal.

Marcus knelt down, giving himself a clear view of the Jackal, who had It's Covenant carbine, a Covenant rifle but also a sniper, aimed directly at the entrance. He raised his weapon and put his finger on the trigger. He took a deep breath, knowing that in order to achieve a good hit on the Jackal, he had to step forward a little, putting himself in range of the Jackal, and fire on it to kill him. He exhaled and breathed in deeply again, and stepped forward.

The next thing Marcus' squad knew, Marcus fired a burst of ammo, only to be thrown backwards by the shot from the Covenant carbine outside, which had been fired at him at the same time he had fired the burst of ammo at the Jackal. A loud screech erupted from outside but they ignored it and ran over to their squad leader. Tanya and Stinger grabbed him by the arms and pulled him back into the building away from the entrance.

"Are you alright?" Tyler asked as he knelt down beside Marcus.

He got his answer when Marcus groaned as he sat up. Then, a small holographic meter appeared above his wrist. The level in the meter was green and beeping red. Then, the level in the meter rose to the top of the meter and stopped blinking red and disappeared into thin air. Marcus smiled a little in relief. He had forgotten about the shield's built-in shield. Thank God that he had this thing on, or he would be dead.

"This suit is strong," he said as he got up and Tyler handed him his battle rifle, which he had dropped when he had been thrown backwards onto the floor.

"I think we got a drop ship landing outside," Stinger said as he walked to the entrance and looked outside.

He looked left to the courtyard to see a huge craft with two L shaped sections attached to a large silver bulge-like section at the back of the two sections, holding them together. A large turret, much like that of a shade turret only without the sphere or the legs, was connected to the bottom of the large silver section. Between the two L shaped sections was a blue haze-like cloud that looked like a visible cloud of electricity. The turret aimed around the area as the craft lowered to the ground.

Gulping, Stinger moved his head back into the building and faced the squad.

"Covenant drop ship outside," he said.

"Alright, get ready," Marcus ordered. "We're in for a hell of a fight. Take up positions near the control room,"

The squad obeyed and ran over to the control room. Stinger, Tyler and Marcus picked up a few crates near the entrance and those scattered across the floor near the control room and set up a small barricade near the control room entrance. Tanya, Alice and Stinger took cover behind that, crouching down behind it and pointing their weapons over the crates or through any holes among them big enough for the barrels of their guns to fit through. Marcus took cover behind the control room wall turning and Tyler took cover behind the turning on the wall across from the control room entrance, crouching down and aiming his weapon at the entrance.

Marcus looked over at the control panels and quickly scanned them with his eyes to see if he could find anything that might explain why the Covenant was searching them. There was nothing and he was again lost with the question: Why were the Covenant soldiers here searching the controls panels for something? Whatever it was, it had to be big? What if…it was what captain McCrea had?

"Search the building!" a deep voice shouted from outside, drawing Marcus' attention away from the control panels and back to the building's entrance. "Get going you whelp!"

The squad readied themselves, placing their fingers on the triggers of their weapons, ready to fire on whatever Covenant appeared in the doorway. Marcus reloaded another ammo clip into his battle rifle and poked his head out from behind the wall to look at the doorway, waiting for the Covenant.

Then, a small figure lumbered into view. It was a Grunt. Another two followed it. Then, a thin vulture-like creature appeared, wielding a large green shield that was coming out of a device attached to It's wrist. It was a Jackal. All of them were holding plasma pistols.

Marcus looked over at the others and nodded, meaning they should be ready to fire. They all replied with nods and aimed their weapons at the Covenant squad. Marcus did the same and placed his finger on his battle rifle's trigger. The Jackal looked around to see if it could see anything that looked out of the ordinary. There was a barricade of crates in front of the entrance to a large room, but that was about i-wait a minute. The Jackal looked closer and saw several things behind the barricade of crates. They looked like…

"NOW!"

A barrage of gunfire filled the air, followed by a loud screech and several yells. After a few seconds, the barrage came to an end and the squad looked out to see the Covenant squad lying dead on the ground.

"Good work," Marcus said. "Alright, let's go see if they're anymo-"

BOOM! The wall of the building seemed to explode all of a sudden, throwing rubble in all directions, some striking the squad but, thankfully, they did not do much harm. A cloud of dust and smoke was thrown into the air; engulfing the squad and making them cough.

"Everyone alright?" Marcus asked as the cloud of dust and smoke began to clear.

The others groaned in reply. They were all okay.

THUD! THUD! What was that? THUD! THUD! Those thuds sounded very close, but what were they? And where they were coming from?

Then, as the dust cloud finally disappeared and light began to fill in from the outside, two large shapes appeared in the hole. The squad looked and went wide-eyed.

Standing there was two large creatures with thick blue armour, were both about twelve feet tall, had a huge metal sword on one arm and a large cannon on the other. Hunters! Oh great, this was bad! Very bad!

"Oh, crap!" Tyler said as he scrambled to his feet, grabbing his weapon.

Green lights began to form in the Hunters' cannons. They grew brighter and brighter. The squad saw this and went wide-eyed. They were preparing to fire!

"GET TO COVER!" Marcus yelled, though there was no other cover within reach apart from the rubble, and that was not going to withstand the cannons of the Hunters.

The Hunters aimed their large and deadly weapons and got ready to fire.

BOOM! An explosion sounded outside, followed by another that engulfed the Hunters. The squad were thrown to the floor once again. What was going on?

After a few seconds, Marcus looked up, aiming his weapon ahead of him, to see that the Hunters were dead. One of them was lying on It's back on the ground outside. Behind it was a small burning pile of metal that Marcus recognized as the drop ship Stinger had seen. The other was lying face down a few feet into the building. In front of it was Tyler, who groaned as he lifted his head, only to gasp and scramble away from the Hunter when he saw it.

"What the Hell was that?" Tanya asked as she got up and helped Alice to her feet.

"I don't know," Stinger replied.

Marcus stepped forward towards the hole when a groan emitted from the Hunter. They squad looked at it and saw it rise a few feet as it tried to lift itself with It's sword arm and cannon.

"Quick, kill it!" Marcus exclaimed.

The squad ran over to the creature and jumped on it and fired a barrage of bullets into the orange weak spot. The Hunter let out a loud groan and thudded to the floor, dead.

"Are you guys alright?" a voice said from the squads' ear radios.

A loud whooshing sound erupted from outside. The squad turned and ran outside to see a pelican about twenty feet away from the base, hovering about six feet above the ground. They smiled. The pelican had arrived and saved them in the nick of time.

"Hop on board," came the pilot's voice.

The squad ran over to the pelican and climbed in. When they were all in and sitting down on the seats, the pelican hovered up into the air and flew away in the direction of the base.

"That was tough," Stinger said as he rested his head against the wall behind him.

The others nodded in agreement.

"We'll have to tell the others this when we get back to base," Marcus said.