It had been three hours since Noble Six had gotten the transmission from the voice that promised his survival. It knew who he was, where he was, and WHAT he was. Spartans were first developed to crush the rebels of the Insurrection, but were now used to crush Covenant skull. Six, however, was forged to kill Covenant right off of the bat. It was certainly an interesting and unique profession, but all in all, it was terrifying. He started out with a dream team, an unstoppable squad, and then ended up alone. There had been five others, four of which could be accounted for.

Jorge, Noble 5, the team's explosives expert and good friend of Six's had sacrificed himself to blow up a Covenant Corvette in attempt to halt the Covenant attack, but his sacrifice proved worthless, as dozens more took its place. Emile, Noble 4, the no bull and all guts badass of the squad, had been operating an Onager laser cannon trying to defend the Pillar of Autumn from a Covenant Battle cruiser, and was ambushed by two Elites, killing one and taking the other down with him. Kat, Noble 2, their genius and expert hacker, had been shot while her shields were down by a Sangheili above Noble team as they were escaping the glassing of New Alexandria. Then there was Carter, Noble 1, the leader of Noble team, who had been piloting a pelican airship with Six and Emile inside, ran out of bullets while fighting an enormous scarab tank, and to clear the way he forced them out of the pelican and crashed the aircraft into the scarab's side, destroying himself and a legion of the Covenant.

Jun, their expert marksman and eye in the sky while Reach fell, however, was nowhere to be found. Six was not sure if he was dead or alive, and it unnerved him.

His thoughts continued to wander for a bit, and then he snapped out of his trance. This had happened to him maybe three or four times, starting ever since the week before. He believed that it was because of his isolation that he was slowly starting to lose it, but he wasn't sure. He would sometimes sit and stare at one of the walls in whatever building he was hiding out in for long periods of time, once even forgetting to eat. When that happened, it was almost as if he had been daydreaming. When he realized what he had been doing and woke up, he felt as though he had been ripped from paradise.

Six simply shook his head and scratched behind his ear. He dismissed the possibility that he was losing his mind with the idea of dinner. He pulled his last MRE from his belt and opened it. If the voice on the radio somehow didn't get to him, this would most likely be his last meal. He had been saving this one for last; a trio of biscuits, some fresh water, and a handful of dried bacon and beef. He took a swig of the water and picked out a biscuit. He was very hungry, but he chewed in moderation. He put the dried meat on the other two biscuits like little sandwiches and ate them slowly, too, finishing up with the water after.

He was still hungry.

He checked to see if the other end of the radio was open, but it wasn't, meaning that the voice was out of range, or possibly dead. Six wasn't exactly an optimistic man, but he safely assumed that whoever they were, they were okay. Six's eyes became heavy. A nap couldn't hurt. Although keeping his helmet on would be a good idea, he doubted that anyone other than his rescuer would be coming by any time soon. He left the helmet where it was, next to his position on the floor, and laid on the floor, closing his eyes.

God damn, this armor is comfy.

Six woke up to the sounds of Covenant surrounding him.

"Shit." He whispered under his breath. How stupid he was, to turn on his tracker. The Covenant must have traced it back to his location. His DMR rifle was just a few feet away, but if he grabbed for it, he would risk detection. He could hear the roar of Sangheili from where he was, and it sounded close. He grabbed his DMR and pulled it towards him. He waited for one of them to call out his location, but no one had seen him yet. He slowly rose up with his gun raised, peering over cover. They were definitely Covenant, and by the looks of it, there were a lot.

Suddenly, several carbine blasts ripped through the air. Six looked up to a team of Jackals.

They saw him.

Another carbine shot hit Six's hand, causing him to drop the DMR. One of them almost hit him in the head, but He ducked the shot, holding his hand. Sure, the shields in his Mjolnir armor absorbed nearly all of the damage sent at them, but they didn't absorb the pain. He grabbed his DMR and dove for a pile of crates that he had collected and pushed together earlier that day, making a decent piece of cover. He liked to be one step ahead, but that wasn't always the case, as was the current situation.

He knew that he was going to have to fight. He loaded a new clip into the rifle and adjusted the scope, then popped out of cover to take a quick look at just how many Covenant he was up against.

There were multiple elites, at least eight of them. No, Nine, there was one on a Ghost. One, two Hunters. Four Jackals, those were easy to spot. There were seven Grunts with plasma pistols, two with needlers, and one with a fuel rod cannon, too. The Jackals began firing, so he ducked again, but now that he knew where everyone was, things would be a little easier. He poked his head out of cover again and shot three deadly accurate rounds into the line of Jackals, one dead center in the head, and the two other bullets ripping through another Jackal's face and chest. The first Hunter began charging its cannon, while the other grouped with four of the Elites and attempted an ambush. Six kept firing away, hitting one, two, four, six headshots on the group of Grunts, killing them instantly. Six dropped to the floor as soon as the first Hunter released its first shot and singed some of the hairs on his head. The Helmet! He thought to himself. Not only was it his only way off of the planet, but it was his only protection from getting shot in the face. He got up onto his feet and dove for the headgear. Suddenly, to his right, the other Hunter appeared and began charging its cannon for a full power blast. Six wasn't expecting an ambush. The Elites appeared around him, almost out of thin air. As Six slipped the helmet on his head to protect his face, he realized that his efforts were futile. The Elites started firing plasma at his armor, eroding some of the metal plating and draining his shields.

"Shit!" Six shouted as he pulled out a hand grenade, threw it into the crowd and dove out of the side of the building.

It was a thirty foot drop, one that he could have easily survived with full shields. But with none? Hopefully his armor would absorb most of the impact.

Three seconds later, Six hit the ground with a loud thump and a crack. The chest plate of his armor had cracked open from plasma erosion, and the only thing between the air and his skin was the gel layer and thick black bodysuit on his torso. If he was shot there now, he would only be able to take maybe two or three shots.

Suddenly, the sound of a sniper rifle shredded the air around Six, causing him to drop to the floor to avoid being hit. Two Elites fell to the ground, both killed by the same round.

The Hunter jumped from the window and almost landed on Six before he rolled to his left and grabbed his gun. Six unloaded the entire clip of his rifle into the soft, wormlike body tissue of the Hunter's head and abdomen, killing it just as the magazine ran dry. The Hunter's corpse slammed into the ground, the noise startling the four remaining grunts, as they were picked off by the sniper rifle behind Six. Again, Six instinctively dropped to the floor, not knowing if this Sniper was friend or foe.

"Hang tight, Six!" His radio said. The Voice! That was who was sniping. At least he knew that he didn't have to worry about getting shot from behind.

More shots, from both the Voice and Six. Jackals and Elites dropped like stones as Six aimed for the other Hunter.

Suddenly, Six was swept off of his feet by a Ghost that was going full speed. As Six clung to the front of the ghost, he fired his DMR at the Elite driving, causing the ghost to swerve and flip down the hill. As they rolled, Six grabbed the Elite by its chest piece, placed his elbow at its throat, and crushed its esophagus and snapped its neck as he landed on the ground.

More sniper rounds. Two, four into the second Hunter. A pause. It blocked a fifth and sixth with its mounted shield. Six got onto his feet and charged the hunter with his combat knife ready. He jumped onto the Hunter's back just as it was about to fire at the Sniper's cover with its cannon. Six drove the knife into the neck of the Hunter and ripped back with his blade, pulling the Hunter's head back and exposing the soft insides of its neck to the Sniper. Two rounds, across where Six cut the Hunter, appeared inside of the its neck, killing it. It collapsed in a giant heap on the ground, and Six turned to face whatever else was nearby.

There were two Elites left in his immediate vicinity, but Six could only see one. The second Elite put its arms in front of Six's and held him from behind as the one he was facing pulled out its Energy Sword and charged.

In a daring moment of bravery and stupidity, Six lifted the lower half of his body and kicked the Elite directly in its toothy maw, stunning it and knocking the sword out of its hand. He flipped upwards and put his knees on either side of the Sangheili's neck, and twisted his waist, snapping the thing's neck. He jumped off of its shoulders and drop kicked the other Elite in the chest. He landed on his back, jumped up, got on to the Sangheili and proceeded to stab it in the throat.

As the Sniper picked off the last of the Covenant, Six raised his gun up, but there were no more living Covenant to be found. Six's shields started to recharge, but more slowly than usual, as if they had been damaged during the battle. Six reached up to his helmet and clicked his radio on.

"You've helped me a lot, but I can't trust you until I know who you are. Come out from there."

"Well, you do know me, so I guess we have trust out of the way." The Voice responded.

"I… know you? What do you mean? I thought..." Six trailed off. The Slavic accent. The sniper rifle...

No way.

Just then, the figure dropped from its perch.

He could tell from the shape of the figure that it was definitely male. As the character approached, he could make out that his armor was green, and had grass and netting on him.

Six ran full speed at the figure, catching him in a very shaky one armed hug.

"I'm not alone! Ha! Hahaha! Yes!" Six said.

The figure was startled by the sudden hug, but that was okay. He had no idea what Six had gone through, but it must have been bad, he thought to himself.

"It's okay, Six. It's okay." The smooth Slavic voiced, green armored eye in the sky said.

And that eye in the sky was one Six knew well.

That eye in the sky was Jun.

Just so everyone knows, I know what actually happened to Jun. He escaped with Halsey and helped with the SPARTAN IV program. At the time of writing, however, I didn't have a clue.

Keep reading, dudes and gals!

~Husky