I closed my eyes. This was going to be it. For the next second I would be ripped to shreds, and I would die alone in the underground chambers with no-one to remember me. Or the next second. Or the one after that… what the hell? I squinted to look – in front of me was a giant shield - a blue, glowing shield of hard light. I was relieved, but after taking too much tension and energy in my last moments of my life, I fainted.

I coughed and came to – and saw a split-chin lizard (it was an elite, but it's a scientifically accurate term to call them this.) staring right into me! I realised I was on the ground of some sort. The best thing to do here: stab. I unsheathed Slicer and was ready to stab the bitch, but then the elite roared a demand. My translator woke up and hurried to translate, and it said: "Stand down!" The speaker was waaaay too loud! Should've tuned it down, and I regretted overriding auto-adjustment settings. I was stunned and bewildered. "No-one commands me!" I roared back, spinning around and trying to flip myself up. But the elite looked at me in a stare which said "don't do anything stupid." It was Jack's death stare! Shit, I thought I've escaped it – alright, now I know I was in Hell. I complied and stopped, and the elite looked around quickly – and motioned me to stand up. I sheathed my Slicer and stood up, reasoning that if it was to eat me, then it would have finished by now. I quickly checked my weapons – all there – and then took account of my surroundings: I was in some sort of hallway, the walls still glittering with the hieroglyphics. The lighting was slightly dim, but good enough for me to see the elite motioning me to follow. I silently followed, nervous about the outcomes of this, but for now I had to have faith in the elite.

It turned out just fine with the faith – and I hated it because I was looking forward to the killing elites part. We arrived in a small encampment of some sort, with 2 makeshift shelters of broken metal. Large targets glowing on a wall showed that it used to be a large shooting arena – maybe for AI targeting calibrations? I looked around and it was all elites. Everyone, that is about 5, came out and looked at me hopefully – what? So straight out of boot, I get sent off to 2 standard missions, and the third I am trapped in a forerunner structure and everyone regarding me as a freaking saviour or something. Shit shit shit. The elite I came with talked to the apparently leader elite, and I just stood impatiently.

The leader elite suddenly turned to me, and the translator said: "I've always had faith in the Arbiter, and so he was true to his words. I have not known that salvation would come so swiftly. Please, lead us out and save us from this structure." Arbiter? The companion to the legendary Spartan, the Master Chief? Okay – so they asked Arbiter for help (wait, how did they get through the comms jam?) and Arbiter asked some-body, probably a human, to come here in this shithole and rescue survivors. And that somebody was probably a Spartan, like me, and an experience one too, if they were going down alone. Don't tell me they mistook me for Master Chief. I followed them into a shelter and the leader sat down, and started, "Master Chief…" SHIT SHIT SHIT"… My name is Thios 'Vthaam. We have arrived here 5 cycles ago, where our intent of our exploration was for scouting for any forerunner artifacts. We had arrived at a structure in the fog-storm, and took refuge in a forerunner structure. However the facility and its guards activated after 2 days of shelter, and we were forced to fight our way here. We made a camp here after clearing out the sentinels and camouflaging our location. We temporarily disabled the communications disrupter and sent the Arbiter the message. "

After he finished the story I didn't know what to do. Should I break it to him that I was not the Master Chief? Or play along? They would despair if I break it and feel betrayed afterwards if I don't. Dammit, whatever – "Umm… I am sorry… uh… how should I put this… I am not The One you are looking for." I confessed. Immediately the elites cried out in despair. All except for one. The leader remained silent. I continued, "I'm just a Spartan IV rookie, fresh outa boot. Not really an experienced legend with the one of the only two hyper-lethal ranks. I sorta just got lost, got chased by sentinels and ended up here." But the leader kept on looking at me – I should call him with his name now, Thios. Thios just stared at me for a long time, and after a long and awkward silence, he broke it, saying "then you must be a hero from the gods. We shall guide you. Then you must do the rest." I sighed and wished someone who knew how to do stuff actually come here, like Jack. But these dudes are stuck with me. And I'm stuck with them! The leader stood up and announced, "We are heading towards the Gates tomorrow. Get your gear ready." I looked at my assault rifle – 4 fresh clips with a full clip inside. The pistol had 6. Then the elites started to crawl into their shelters, but I had none. Rude. I decided to pick a high spot – yes, the control room – and started to climb up. There were ladders, but a little sturdier than the entrance. I reached the controls and was pondered if the controls still worked. I didn't touch it, in case it summoned freaking sentinel-Godzilla. I sat down uncomfortably. Looks like I'll have to sleep in my armour, in case the Elites came up here for a bite of human meat. I leaned against a wall and closed my eyes.

But the night was restless. I couldn't sleep, after all that happened – plus, I'm still "the Master Chief" to the leader. It kept me on the edge. Thank Chief for that – because through my eye lids I saw a little dot beeping on my radar – but somehow, the comms jam fried my FOF tagging system. I snapped open my eyes and tracked it carefully. The beep carefully circled the camp, then started to climb – towards me! Lucky bastard. I suddenly lunged for the bustling shadow. But what came next I could never have imagined.