*Author's notes* (For those with an OC idea)

Just a quick little note. If you submit an OC bio, please have a complete list of weapons. That includes one primary, secondary, heavy. (Please try and keep it realistic. Nothing that's overpowered or ridiculous, please. If you submit a bio with an incomplete list of weapons I will default them to the following:

Primary: Assault Rifle

Secondary: Side Arm

Heavy: LMG

Also note that the OC cap for this fic will be limited to 6. Anymore and it will be hard to keep track of. Thank you for your time and continued reading in this fic.

*End Author's Notes*

Silence.

Awkward silence was the only thing that was mutually felt in the small compartment of the Starfighter. Though not outwardly spoken, it was painfully obvious that both occupants were uncomfortable.

Looking over, I could see that Jaguar was shifting around in her seat and meticulously checking over her weapon load out that she had retrieved from a compartment in the back. She would even steal a glance in my direction occasionally, though this did not go unnoticed. As for me, I had already checked over my weapons twice before and was now examining my new arm curiously, desperate for any sort of distraction. I may have hidden it well, but I was just as uncomfortable as the mysterious lady next to me.

She struck me as something familiar. It was her personality. She seemed to have one of those "take no shit from no one" attitudes. Yet I suspect that there may be a softer side to her that only a select few know of. I could respect that. Spartans simulate similar behavior to almost anybody; serious to everyone and friendly to each other.

She didn't say a single word in our seemingly endless trip to the Cosmodrome. When the ship hovered to a stop over our pre-arranged rendezvous point she all but jumped from her seat and sprinted out the hatch.

I sighed once and followed after the mysterious woman.

The rendezvous point was rather open. A desolate hilltop and dotted with a few shrubs and rock faces jutting out here and there. A perfect kill box for a sniper, but a poor choice for a rendezvous point. However, a quick scan of the area turned up no immediate threats within the AO.

(Area of Operation)

"Six to Alicia, over." I spoke into my helmet's com unit.

"I read you, over." Her response came.

"We've reached the rendezvous point, what's your status, over?"

"We're a few minutes out. Listen, the plan's changed a little bit, over."

A change in plans? Another complication, perhaps the Fallen started to advance or maybe they set up a secondary landing zone.

"What's the change, over?"

"Zavala wants us to link up with one of his advanced scouts in the area. He's apparently the one who found the Fallen op. We talk more once we regroup, over."

"Roger that, over and out."

I turned off the radio and walked over to Jaguar, who had started to drag the charges out of her ship.

I grabbed one of the charges from the compartment and helped with the process of unloading them. There were eight in total, each weighing a good amount. They were rectangular in shape, about a foot long and about six inches wide. They honestly looked like a door breaching charge, however I was assured that they would be significantly more powerful.

"So what's the word?" Jaguar inquired.

"Few minutes out from rendezvous…and we have to link up with an advanced scout."

"Why?"

"Didn't say." I said as dragged out the last of the charges.

A few minutes later, a dull roar accompanied their teammate's ships as they approached.

With a roar, the engines on Lily and Alicia's ships flared to a stop as they set down and their respective occupants exited. They both were donning their respective armor and weapon load outs. When they cleared a safe distance from their ships, the engines flared to life again and they took off seemingly on their own, going up and up until even with the help of my helmet's enhanced vision I lost sight of them.

"Why'd your ships leave?" I asked, straightening out from my hunched over position overlooking the charges.

"It's standard protocol for a Guardian's ship to retreat to a safe distance in low planetary orbit after a successful mission deployment. It ensures that a Guardian doesn't find themselves stranded." Lily explained.

Made sense to me; there were many an occasion in which a squad of marines died because their evac ride was shot down. Not sure if the orbit feature would have been all that helpful though, the covenant did stage their invasions from space after all.

"Well now that we're all here, we can get this show on the road, so to speak. I've got the charges primed and ready to go. We should link up with this scout and try and come up with some sort of plan." Jaguar explained while standing up and dusting herself off.

"Agreed, where on the clock so we should finish up here ASAP and rendezvous with the scout." Alicia stated.

We divided up the eight charges evenly, two apiece. Alicia, Lily, and Jaguar had a sort of duffle bag for the charges where as I clipped my two charges to the magnetic clamps located on the small of my back and upholstered my scout rifle, cocking back the receiver and chambering a round into the now live weapon; the others followed suit. And with the charges transport ready and weapons loaded, we set out across the open field of the Cosmodrome.

Apparently this scout was to meet us at the entrance of the Cosmodrome's wall. From there we would pool our resources and his Intel to hopefully come up with some sort of viable plan. Or at least that was the general conciseness of the group. In truth, we really didn't have a plan, there wasn't enough time to come up with one. In the span of maybe three or four hours I woke up from surgery after getting a new arm installed, was forced into going to a bar to find my team, had my first drink at the expense of my dignity, and was now being thrown into this pre-emptive cluster fuck, it was definitely shaping up to be one of those , who ever this guy was, had some good Intel that we could use, otherwise we would practically be flying blind on this one.

We were coming up on some sort of structure and like the others, a victim of time. The metal was rusted away into a dirty red color, the concrete crumbling away in large portions leaving entire rooms exposed to the elements, and to top it all off, the roof was cave in and in some places nonexistent.

Lily must have noticed my curiosity somehow with my helmet on as she started to explain the building to me.

"This is Dock Thirteen, we go through here and then cross the divide to the Breach. The scout should meet us there."

I gave a nod in understanding, and then followed the others into the building. Jaguar was taking the point with Alicia and Lily in the middle, and finally me bringing up the rear, covering our six with my rifle at the ready, occasionally sparring a glance at my motion tracker to make sure that the line was still moving behind me.

We were moving at a relatively quick pace, almost a sort of jog, if a jog was when you had a rifle shouldered and were hunched over while running. We didn't have the luxury of taking our time. We had to meet up with this scout, come up with a plan, execute the plan, and then join in on the main assault when Zavala gave the word. Easier said than done.

Within ten minutes, and no hostiles detected, we were clear of the building and moving out into an open area that could only be the 'Divide' that Lily had mentioned earlier.

It was nothing but a glorified kill box. On our right, another building, this one a two story and still relatively intact, and next to that was a dammed up river. To our left was one of the Cosmodrome's inner walls, this one running strait ahead of us before curving right and then going straight ahead again, forming the left side of the kill box. And a similar wall, the City's outer wall, was running parallel to it on the far right. The only other thing of note were a few buildings that lined the back wall, other than that, it was nothing but open fields. This was definitely any ambusher's dreams come true, but of course that was probably the intention behind the layout. If the enemy breached the first wall, then they would walk strait into a series of kill zones, making it that much harder to lay siege to the City.

We took an immediate right as soon as we exited the building and picking up the pace, crossed the dam within a minute or two. Once we were across the dam we took refuge inside of a vehicle shed or sorts, catching our breath before crossing the final stretch of open ground to the breach.

We still haven't encountered any hostiles. Something big was definitely going on. If these unknown Fallen that were about to attempt a full-fledged siege against the City were of the same race as the ones that we faced off against in my first mission than who's to say that they aren't teaming up against the City. The only other explanation for the lack of hostile contacts was they got wind of the big assault and bugged out before they got caught in the middle.

Either one seemed as probable as the other, but at the moment it doesn't matter. For now, all that matters is repelling the assault against the City, and our role was to soften up the enemy opposition before the main force rolled in for the kill.

After another minute or so of watching and catching our breath, it was determined that the final stretch like all the others before, was clear of hostiles. If the others noticed the lack of contacts then they kept it to themselves, probably trying not to break the silence to state the obvious. These were definitely seasoned members of the Vanguard, showing discipline and attentiveness for detail that only came with years of experience.

We printed out of the vehicle shed in a single file line; Jaguar first, then Lily, Alicia, and finally me. Once cross the open area and into the enclose space of the City's outer wall did we finally break the silence.

"So does anyone know who this scout is or where exactly we can find him?" Jaguar asked.

No one spoke up, offering only a shrug in response.

"Zavala never said, in fact the only thing he said was to meet up with a scout in the Breach at this area." Lily spoke up. Alicia backed up her claim with a nod.

"Well I don't see him anywhere so we should probably move on with the mission." Jaguar said.

We all consented and without another word moved on with weapons at the ready. The entrance into the Breach took us through something that resembled a service tunnel of sorts. The tunnel itself was wide enough to walk two by two except in my case. So with Jaguar up front, Alicia and Lily in the middle, and me bringing up the rear once again, we made it through the tunnel at a reasonable pace.

The tunnel didn't go on for long. After taking a few turns here and there, it emptied out into a sort of manmade chasm. We must have been right in the middle of the wall since massive walls spanned for miles in either direction and came to a point at the top to form a sort of ceiling. Directly in from of us was a rusted gantry way that crossed the pitch black canyon that followed the wall's length.

"Should we take a minute to look around for the scout?" Lily asked.

I was about to offer my input, but before I could, I was cut off by a loud bang, followed by another two in rapid succession. With the final bang's echo dissipating inside the metal structure of the wall, something fell from the supports above and nearly landed on Jaguar had she not moved towards cover at the sound of gunfire.

We all had our weapons as the ready, looking in any of the direction for the location of the shooter, no one daring to turn their backs to a potential hostile to check the corpse.

"Anybody got eyes on that shot!?" Jaguar shouted out.

"Negative, no eyes." I shouted back, checking my motion tracker for any signs of the shooter.

If the shooter hadn't taken another shot by this point then whoever it was had probably fled by now. I kept my guard up but turned around to examine the corpse that had fallen from the support beams, however the darkness of the Breach made it difficult to recognize it at a first glance.

I dropped down to one knee and tried looking over the body up close, but the darkness still proved too thick. I set my rifle down on the ground and grabbed for my side arm. Bringing it to bear, I toggled on the under mount flashlight and the white light pierced the darkness. I shined it down onto the corpse, revealing a black cape attached to and concealing the corpse's identity. Intrigued, I reached out and brushed away part of the cape revealing a three fingered hand.

I quickly rolled over the corpse to reveal a Fallen Vandal, which means that whoever shot him was against the Fallen. And there was only one person that could have done such a thing and was supposed to be out here, our mysterious scout.

"Hang on a sec, this is a Vandal, hold your fire!" I called out while standing up with my weapons.

At my announcement, the others glanced back at me and then at the corpse that I still had my light trained on. A second later they realized the implication behind my discovery and lowered their weapons yet didn't completely put them away either, just in case it turns out I was wrong.

"This is Fire Team Sundown, identify yourself!" Jaguar called out.

"Titan, Advanced Scout, Reagan." Came out a reply from the darkness, echoing off the metal supports and into nothingness.

Following the reply, a man of substantial stature emerged from behind one of the support pillars at the end of the gantry way with a large, smoking revolver in hand. He waved us over to him without another word.

We all looked at each other, our expressions hidden behind the helmets, shrugged and moved forward across the gantry way, all except me. While the others crossed over I eyed the gantry way with apprehension. When a Spartan was outfitted with their armor, they roughly weighed half a ton, and while I have no doubt that this walkway could hold me under normal circumstances, these were not normal circumstances. This walkway was rusted out and nearly falling apart. I honestly was not about to die in another dimension just because a rusted out gantry way couldn't hold my weight.

The others seemed to notice my absence about halfway across because they came to a stop and looked back at me.

"Hey Six, what's wrong?" Jaguar called out.

"It's the walk way, I don't think it can hold my weight." I yelled back.

They must have finally taken notice of the condition of the walkway as they looked down at it.

"Hang on; we'll come up with something." Lily called out.

I shook my head.

"There's no time for that. Look, I'll double back and look for another way across and we can regroup. Meanwhile, you'll need to come up with a plan. Radio me when you have something."

"Alright, just be careful. We'll contact you when we have a plan." Jaguar chimed in.

Without another word, they turned their backs to me and advanced further into the tunnels.

I sighed at my predicament. One of the most advanced units in the UNSC, a Spartan III-no the Spartan III. Spartan B-312, rank of Lieutenant, one of the only two Spartans to ever achieve the ranking of Hyper Lethal Vector, was stopped in his tracks by a rusted out walk way, oh the humility.

Looking around, I noticed that there were similar walkways spanning the chasm in various places. Some of them even appeared to be in better condition than the one in front of me. The one that caught my eye however was about two floors above me and off to the right. It appeared to be remarkably untouched by time. Now I just need to find my way up to it and then I could cross over.

Glancing around, I noticed to my immediate right was an old, rusted door, bared with a slab of metal welded across it. This might have been an entrance to a stairwell, and if it was then that made my job that much easier.

I tried the door's handle, only to be met with resistance and the groaning protest of the rusted metal. I offered another sigh in response to the door's stubbornness; looks like we're going to half to do things the hard way.

I took a step back, and then I launched my armored foot at the door. The door gave away easily; in fact it flew into the dark room, right off its rusted hinges. I grasped my side arm from my thigh plate and thumbed on the flashlight once again. The light spewed forth and pierced the blackness illuminating the next room to indeed be a stairwell.

Concrete staircases led to both the lower and upper levels. I would only need to go up a couple of flights to reach the catwalk, or that's what it looked like from down here; either way, I needed to go up and they say that there's no time like the present. With my pistol at the ready, its light illuminating the way, I started up the first flight at a relatively light jog. No reason to rush things, the others would need time to come up with a feasible plan.

POV SWITCH: LILY

(AN: I will try to avoid doing this as much as possible in the future. I will not be doing this with submitted OC's unless asked to or under specific circumstances within the story. I don't want to muck up somebody else's OC by doing a POV wrong. Like I said, if you want a POV for a character, PM me or leave it in a review. Thank you.)

I was worried. Yes, definitely worried. That was the easy thing to figure out. The harder things weren't so simple, but then they wouldn't be hard, now would they? One of the harder things was what I was worried about; I can't seem to figure out what specifically. I was worried for Six. When a team mate gets separated from the team the odds generally aren't in their favor. Sure he could handle himself, that was a given, but I couldn't help but worry for him. I was worried about this entire op that was for sure. I mean, who wouldn't be; an army of Fallen show up, right outside the City undetected, and set up a staging ground. The only reason we even knew about them was because of people like Reagan here, and that was because they decided to stick their heads out a window every once in awhile instead of relying on scanners so much. Sometimes the old ways are still around because they work.

I suppose a congratulatory celebration is in order, if we live through this that is, to thank Reagan for his discovery. Ah yes, Reagan. He and I go way back, or I guess I should say all three of us go way back. Reagan was kind enough to show us the ropes when we first came to the City. He himself wasn't even a Guardian for more than a few months, but still, a few months of experience can be the differential factor of living and dying.

We started to work together after awhile. He said something along the lines of "us rookies got to stick together" or something like that; god it's been so long. Reagan was something like the unofficial leader of our little trio. We started off small, taking on small bounties and the like, but with time and experience, eventually we started to take on the odd jobs that the more experienced Guardians considered low priority. And all the while, as we became more experienced we became closer as a sort of family of misfits.

Eventually, people started to talk about us. Just the occasional chatter here and there or the occasional good job on a well done assignment, stuff like that; and given time, with their gossip their respect. We started getting offers for some of the bigger contracts and missions. We were moving up and it felt great. But when the rumors and gossip about us reached the heads of the Vanguard, that's when things went downhill, but not in a tragic way or anything, not really anyways.

They had heard that there was this new and seemingly invincible team moving up the ranks. They kept hearing these things, these rumors and whispers of this team; and so one day they decided to do a little research on these rumors. Their research led them to us. They sent word to us that they wanted us to report the Vanguard War Room. When a lower class team of Guardians gets called up to the Vanguard War Room, it usually entails a big promotion or a reward for a job well done. It goes without saying that it doesn't happen very often and naturally we thought we were getting a promotion or something.

When we got there, we were inspected and asked questions on various tactics and such. Very quickly this stopped looking like a promotion and more like a test of sorts, but a test for what; now that was the million dollar question.

After an hour of inspecting and questioning and other things, they asked to take a test of sorts. When asked they said it was to prove ourselves, but they never said prove ourselves for what. We were sent out into the field, given one task to complete, kill the leading officer of one of the Fallen outpost in the Cosmodrone.

We took this to be an easy test, and it was for someone who didn't know what they were being tested for. We completed the assignment without any complications and were reporting back at the Tower within a few hours of deployment.

The heads of the Vanguard were extremely pleased with our handy work, more specifically Reagan's, saying that he displayed proficient leadership skills and excellent combat prowess when in the field, said that it was rare for someone to display these qualities so quickly after joining the Vanguard. Then they did something that we didn't see coming. They offered him a promotion into the ranks of the Advanced Vanguard Scouts. Don't get the wrong idea, it's a huge promotion, but the AVS operates solo in the field. If accepted then our team would be a man short and the Rules of the Vanguard state that if you want to take on the higher up missions you need to have a team of at least three to prevent friendly casualties.

He would have turned down the promotion; he was always like that, putting the team first. But we encouraged him to take the promotion. Otherwise we would have felt like we were holding him back. So he accepted, became an operative of the AVS's and Alicia and I were forced to start taking the lower level jobs again. Despite being happy for him, we couldn't help but feel like our careers had come full circle, right back to square one. We kept at it for a while, and eventually got over that feeling, even started to take the smaller jobs just to assist the newer Guardians, showing them the ropes just like Reagan did for us. And one day, a little over a year later, the Vanguard contacted us again, said that we had to report for an assignment; that was the assignment that we found Six on. The rest you should know.

Speaking of Six, we should probably hurry up; don't want him to find us before come up with a plan. I'm not too sure he would appreciate waiting on us after having to find a way across that gap and then trying to regroup with us, especially after telling us to come up with a plan while he's gone.

AN:

And that's a rap for this chapter. Sorry for the long wait. I was having a serious case of the writer's block and while I could have finished this chapter while I had the block, I would have probably shoveled out utter crap. Better to wait for the quality stuff I suppose. This chapter is on the shorter side of what I usually do, sorry but this has been long overdue and it's a good stopping point. As always read and review, flames are welcome and there is still an open spot for an OC submission. Just follow the guidelines at the top of the chapter and so on. One more thing let me know what you think of this Reagan character. I know that there wasn't really a whole lot with him in it, but I didn't intentionally do this. I did do a bit of a back-story for him and how he knows Alicia and Lily. If you like this or want this for you own OC say something. This is the first time I've done a back-story for someone else's OC. I was always afraid of doing something wrong with a character that wasn't mine. Hopefully I did a good job with this one. The next chapter, I can promise you will not be up for a while. Fallout 4 comes out with its first DLC and Doom 4 is set to come out in less than a month so chances of distractions are very high, but I do check my email for PM's and stuff regularly so don't hold out on contacting me. Thanks for reading and leave a review or PM me or flame if you feel like it was necessarily. I know I took a lot of liberties with this chapter but hopefully I didn't do too bad of a job.