Wow, that was a long hiatus, huh?

I'm finally back! It took me a while, but I finally have an opportunity to write again! I am so sorry for the delay Wolfgang, here is the latest chapter of what is apparently:

"...one of the best Halo stories on the site."

-Gamer God3331

I feel so cool hearing that! Be sure to check out my Pokémon Platinum Fanfic, too! I'm going to start writing a fourth chapter as soon as this is up!

Happy reading, Wolfgang!

~Husky

The squad had entered another chasm full of Covenant minutes ago, and had just finished clearing out the last of them, including one of the largest Hunters that Six had ever seen.

"I thought the Covenant had eliminated all the Marine forces in this area." Cortana said.

"Apparently not." Staff Sergeant Johnson said, staring at the downed Hunter. Six and John had found him alone with the beast not minutes ago, and helped him out. Clancy walked up and kicked it with his boot. "Gross." He said. Suddenly, he looked up.

"Wait wait wait... Shhh. Anyone else hear that?" Clancy said. Everyone stayed silent. There was a deep humming, and it was getting progressively louder every second. Suddenly, a Covenant Spirit Dropship rose from behind the cliffs and started approaching full speed towards them.

"Covenant dropship inbound, take cover!" Six said.

Just then, another Spirit rose from the other side, dropping in waves of Covenant forces. "Watch your six! More of them!" John said. The first Spirit began unloading troops on to the terrain now, Jackals and Grunts jumping from the ship and into the snow below. Six raised his Magnum and started firing on them from a distance, killing quite a few. A rogue carbine shot hit one of the marines, sending her to the ground. Six ran over to her, but it was too late, for the shot had entered her head.

"Marine down!" Six yelled. A beam rifle shot echoed through the air, hitting John in the shoulder. "You alright over there?" Six yelled to John.

"I'm fine!" He said, spraying bullets in the Covenant's direction. Clancy and the other marine were holding up well along with Sergeant Johnson. Six kept unloading on the Forces behind them, killing dozens. He took down Grunts and Jackals left and right, as were the others. After several minutes and three or so drop ships, the area was secure. Clancy walked over to the fallen marine and started fiddling with something on her neck.

"What're you doing?" Six asked.

Clancy looked behind him, pulled off whatever he was trying to get, and showed Six. "Dog tags. She was a friend."

"Oh." Six replied with a grim tone to his voice.

"You know... So she isn't forgotten." Clancy said.

Six nodded and waved what was left of the squad towards him.

Six was panting. Surprising, considering his inhuman endurance. Six had led the squad out of the chasm and nearby a cliffside mounted with stationary guns. They fired on the squad, killing yet another marine and injuring him in the process. He and John worked together and took out the stationary guns with a pair of nearby missile pods, and cleared the area for evacuation.

"Area secure, Zulu. Evac is en route to your position. I want you to take our marines with you, too." Six said into the radio.

"Understood, sir." Zulu team's leader responded as a Pelican dropship flew over the cliffs and landed beside the squad. "You heard the man. Climb aboard, marines!"

"Good idea... I should probably get this checked out..." Clancy said over the radio with a light chuckle, probably checking the bloody bandages on his side. The marines hopped onto the Pelican as it rose up and flew away. The two Spartans gave a little salute to the ship as it flew away, and then Six spoke.

"Come on, John. We'd better get moving before they..." Six heard boosters behind him. "Catch us... with our pants down..." He turned to look behind them. John turned as well, and the two were greeted by the sight of three Banshees speeding towards them.

"Cortana! Are you reading this?" Six asked.

"Negative! Somehow they slipped under my radar! Find some cover, quickly!" She replied. If a handful of Covenant ships could slip through Cortana's watch, who knows what else the Covenant have learned to conceal. John ran towards one of the missile pods from earlier, only to be swept off of his feet after grabbing it. A Covenant Ghost hit him full force at eighty miles per hour, throwing the missile pod from his hands and off of the cliff. Six turned and grabbed his missile pod from the ground, aimed and fired at the Banshees repeatedly. The lock on feature helped track them, but most of the shots were missing. By the time that he had run out of ammo, he had only taken down one of the Banshees.

"John, I could use a little bit of help here!" Six yelled into the radio.

"Yeah, I'm working on it!" He replied.

"Work faster!"

"Riding on the hood of a Ghost is a lot harder than you think!"

"No it isn't, I've done it before!"

"What?!"

"Oh, never mind!"

Six took out a plasma grenade and threw it up into the air, catching it on one of the Banshees overhead. The hull exploded, sending shrapnel and flames in several directions. It crashed about thirty yards ahead, where Six could see more Ghosts and Banshees approaching.

"John, where are you at?" Six said loudly. "John!"

A Ghost came up to Six at lightning speed, but the driver was certainly no Covenant.

"Get on." John said.

"Aren't Ghosts one seated?!" Six asked.

"We can work around it!" John yelled as Six got in the back, placing his feet on the back of the seat and sitting on the round back of the Covenant vehicle.

"Oh, great!" Six yelled as John gunned the engine and sped up to around eighty miles per hour. They sped along the ridge, leaving the unready Covenant in the dust. Six pulled his DMR off of his back and aimed at the now pursuing Ghosts. They were flying through rocks and fallen trees as Banshees shot plasma bolts inches behind them. Six fired a shot at one of the Grunts driving a Ghost, knocking it off and killing it as its Ghost flew towards them, flipped over and exploded on another.

"Whoo!" Six yelled as it blew up. "I'm liking this arrangement!"

"Duck." John said.

"What?"

"Duck!"

"Oh shit!" Six said as he barely ducked a tree trunk that had been, at the time, flying towards his face. They were now approaching a set of bridges. With all of the open space, there was no way that they could lose the Covenant there.

"Two hundred feet from the Control Center!" Cortana said.

"Can you go any faster?!" Six yelled.

"Probably not without burning the engine!" John said.

"Then burn it! We're almost there!" Six yelled back.

"I don't recommend doing that, Chief. If this engine gets too overworked, it may combust and possibly explode." Cortana said.

"If we don't, WE may combust and possibly explode!" Six yelled as he fired at more of the Ghosts, knocking Grunts and Elites off every few shots. They were on the first bridge now, and almost to the second. Just a few more seconds, and...

"One hundred feet!" Cortana said.

A plasma grenade flew through the air and landed on the back of their Ghost, arming itself.

"Fuck! GRENADE!" Six yelled to John. They were nowhere close to the Control Room's entrance, maybe a hundred feet away, and they were about to be blown up before they got there. "PUNCH IT!"

John overclocked the engine, sending the ghost barreling forward at one hundred and twenty miles per hour. As they left the Covenant in the dust, Six plunged his robotic arm into the metal alloy which covered the back area of the ghost and ripped upwards, tearing the thick metal shell of the Ghost's back panel completely off. Ten feet from the entrance, Six attempted to throw the grenade stuck alloy, but it exploded before it got a foot from them. The Ghost flipped.

"Hang on to something!" John said loudly.

"Hang on to what!?" Six yelled louder.

As Six clenched his superhuman grip on to the Ghost's seat strap, they did several full rolls on the ground and entered the front door of what could have only been Halo's Control Center as it locked behind them.

"Jesus, everything hurts." Six groaned. He got up, and looked ahead of him. "Whoa."

It was a network of machinery and gadgets lining the walls, some even AS walls. In the middle was a large holo-table and a terminal, ready and waiting for them.

"Analyzing. This must be the Control Room. Subtle." Cortana said.

"This is it. Halo's control center." Six said. "We made it here before the Covenant did, too. I think. Right?"

"Scanning... No Covenant forces in the vicinity. So yes, Six. We made it here before them." Cortana said happily.

"Good." Six replied simply. "Plug her into that terminal. See if we can gain some insight on this Halo I've been hearing so much about."

John unplugged Cortana's chip from his helmet and inserted her chip into the terminal. A second later, she appeared above the table, but she looked... Different. Streams of what Six could only assume was data flew out of her AI in all directions, and her eyes turned a deep crimson. Her body was green, then purple, and back to green.

"You alright, Cortana?" John said.

"I've never been better!" Cortana said with a happy smile. The smile disappeared and was replaced by a look of absolute wonder. She shifted her hand through the data streams as if they were water. "You can't imagine the wealth of information... So much... So fast... It's glorious."

"What sort of weapon is it?" John asked.

"What do you mean?" Cortana said, John's question breaking her out of her trance.

"What he means is, what does it do? How can we use it to fight the Covenant?" Six asked.

Cortana simply snorted. "The ring isn't a cudgel, you barbarians. it's something else... something much more important. The Covenant were right... this ring... it's... Forerunner technology. Give me a second to access... yes, the Forerunners built this place, what they called a "fortress world", in order to... no, that can't be. Oh, those Covenant fools, they must have known, there must have been signs!" She said very quickly. She suddenly donned a frightened look.

"Slow down. You're losing me." John said.

"The Covenant found something, buried in this ring, something horrible, and now... they're afraid." She said, terrified.

"Something buried?" Six said. "Where?"

Her face became ever more darkened. "The Captain! We have to stop the Captain!" Cortana yelled in sheer terror.

"Keyes? What do we-" John said, but was cut off by Cortana.

"The weapons cache he's looking for. It's not really— We can't let him get inside!" She said.

"I don't understa-" John said, but was once again cut off.

"There's no time. Get out of here, find Keyes, stop him! Before it's too late!" She shrieked.

"C'mon, Six, let's move it!" John yelled as they both turned and ran, hoping to find Keyes before whatever Cortana found was unleashed.

And if Cortana was afraid, well, it certainly couldn't be a good thing.

Wow, I wonder what'll happen next?

...Is what I would say if everyone didn't already know what happens next. But hey, this is MY fanfic, you never know.

Keep reading, Wolfgang!

~Husky