(Note: for those of you that came here with the email, there is a new first chapter too!)

Just a Walk on the Beach

12 Years Later
April 23, 2538 1536hrs
Large Saline Ocean, Potential colony world GH-4354C
Corporal Nick Walker

Nick blinked and slowly shook his head. He was still strapped into the crash-seat of the SKT-9 Bumblebee lifeboat, but there was half a meter of water covering the floor. His head was spinning, and it throbbed dully in a grueling headache. The emergency lighting inside the pod flickered and he could see the outside world through the cockpit window; the morning light was peeking out over the horizon while a cluster of fireballs burned across the sky.

Sound was slowly returning to him with a rapid beeping from the pilot seat and the creaking of the cooling hull. Others in the pod were starting to stir, and his mind began to recall what had happened in the skies above.

After surviving an engagement with the Covenant, the UNSC Epoch-Class Carrier Midnight Flame initiated its Cole Protocol jump; however, it was heavily damaged. Believing the ship incapable of making a return journey back to safe Human space, the Captain decided to divert them to a nearby system that was home to an abandoned repair and refit station. Nearly fifty years ago, the station had been disabled in an orbital collision, and the survey crew deemed it more affordable to leave it behind in a stable orbit than tow it back to civilized space.

The UNSC set it up as an emergency supply depot near the start of the Covenant War, so they had hoped it held what they needed to make the necessary repairs. But it had been probably twenty years since anyone had done a check in on the station, no clue who had looted the place between then and now. The planet itself had once been tagged for colonization by the 2550s but that had gone out the window when the Covenant began its attacks.

Unfortunately, when the limping Carrier came within visual range of the station, they instead found an active Insurrectionist hideaway. The half slagged core section of a Stalwart-class Light Frigate was tethered to a fully functioning repair operation. There was nothing the Midnight Flame could do, they needed the station for themselves, and there was no way that the Insurrectionists would give the UNSC an assist. As soon as the Carrier came around the planet on final approach, the Insurrectionist launched the frigate. The ship maneuvered around using small utility thrusters welded to its hull, as its starboard fusion engine was completely missing.

In a bold move, the Insurrectionist Frigate charged up its seemingly functional Magnetic Accelerator Cannon and moved in for a kill shot on the wounded carrier that was just now realizing that its gamble may have been too large. However, there must have been an obstruction in the cannon's barrel, or the projectile was faulty, as the MAC slug shattered before leaving the ship. The ensuing explosion tore apart the lower boom, blasting the ship backwards into the planet's atmosphere. The small maintenance thrusters were not strong enough for atmospheric reentry, and it began to tumble and burn up on its way down to the surface. The gamble had appeared to pay off.

With the station's only defense apparently having destroyed themselves, the Carrier continued on course for the refit station. The Captain ordered the ship's surviving Marine complement to prepare for a desperate boarding operation. Nick's fireteam had been slated for the second wave, which probably saved them in the end.

As soon as they were in range to cover the Pelicans with the ships remaining point-defense guns, the station showed the hand they were hiding. Dozens of Archer missiles flared up from hidden launchers beneath patches of metal work.

The defense guns opened up on the missiles, but there were too many holes in their field of fire. Only a few missiles streaked in and detonated against the hull, but just one was more than enough to count as a killing blow. The only thing the Captain could do was to order whoever was left to abandon ship.

When the call came in, Nick and his fireteam scrambled for the nearest lifeboat station. Their duty post had been to stand guard in the vehicle bay, which had been spared a direct hit by the missile attack. They completely filled one pod with themselves and a few technicians from the vehicle deck, then launched away. Through the rear door and the licking plasma of reentry, Nick was able to see the Midnight Flame accelerate into the refit station and slam it down into the planet's atmosphere behind them. Hopefully, that would mean no Innies would come after the survivors on the surface.

The lifeboat was coming down over a wide ocean, with an island rapidly approaching. They came down in the water and skipped across the surface for nearly a thousand meters, then collided with a protruding chunk of coral reef. They tumbled the rest of the way, coming to a stop just offshore of the island. Everyone had passed out in the impact.

Nick's head was feeling back to normal, and he guessed that he had only been out of it for a few seconds.

The lifeboat rocked slightly as one of the Technicians unclipped the crash seat restraints and tentatively tested his legs. "That was a hell of a ride."

"Not one that I'd like to do again." Nick replied, undoing his restraints and also trying to stand in the pod. The shift in weight distribution caused the lifeboat to roll over. The others that were strapped in were not asleep for much longer. His helmet had been yanked off during the crash; it had rolled into some of the netting under the Technician's seat. He reached down and pulled it free, causing the pod to shift again.

"Hey, knock off the movement over there; I'm tryin' to get up." The voice belonged to Lance Corporal Kurt Spanner, the fireteam assistant.

Nick grabbed one of the handholds and steadied himself while the pod settled long enough for Spanner to get out. He placed his helmet back on and rebooted the software with his free hand. He paid special attention to the bio-sign monitors for the rest of his Fireteam. It had been a rough landing, and everyone had been briefly knocked out, which was never a good thing. Thankfully as everything slowly flashed on his HUD, the fireteam all looked to be recovering normally and quickly.

His HUD identified the two Technicians as Crewman Harrison Turov, and Cathy Weaver; their pilot was Petty Officer Hanz Bauer. Their vital signs had automatically synchronized with his helmet when he refreshed the system. The other Fireteam members, PFC Oceania Luzana, and Travis Ackland winked green one by one. Even if the system said they were all good, he still called for a verbal acknowledgement.

Each replied with a confirmation and a pod shift as they adjusted themselves. From the Pilot seat, Bauer flipped some switches and the flickering lights flashed once, then burned steady. "We are resting on a couple of rocks just off an island. I'm making a guess that it is high tide right now by the looks of the rocks around us." His voice held a moderate old Germanic accent.

Nick slowly moved to the rear hatch of the lifeboat and glanced out the window. He watched the waves buffer the pod and the rocks for a few moments. "Well, it looks like the tide is going out, think we'll be able to walk to shore in a bit?"

Bauer glanced back from the pilot's seat. "That's how tides work... no, Corporal? I can't see under the water either"

"Okay fair enough." Nick sighed. "We'll wait a bit and then make our way to shore. Are we getting anything from the other lifeboats, the Command boat?"

"Nah, nichts, Corporal. It may be that they haven't set up anything yet." He shook his head and looked back over his shoulder.

Nick sat back down in his seat to let someone else get a chance to stretch their legs. There was not that much room inside a Bumblebee lifeboat. "Hopefully, they're up and running by the time we get out of this."

Luzana was next to stand and shift the pod. "Walker... what's the chance we were the only ones to make it off the Flame?"

"Low... I hope..." Nick replied. As they cycled through people in the pod, the tide outside slowly dropped below the door.

The rocks surrounding them were covered in green seaweed and chunky mollusks, and it was clear that there was a mostly 'dry' path leading into the mainland. "Looks like we've got a path. Only take one extra bag, I don't want anyone overloaded on these wet rocks." Nick looked across the pod at his fireteam- plus three. "If everything goes well, we'll make another few trips back for the rest of the supplies. Got it?"

The survivors chimed in agreements and collected their single plus bag. Now that the pod was firmly settled on the rocks, all the movement inside did nothing to the stability. There was just enough space for everyone to move around in their area.

"I'm going to pop the seal. Air reading is breathable long term." Luzana had her fingers on the panel, waiting for the go-ahead.

"Alright, go for it." Nick waved his hand forward. "Once we're out I want you on point. Ackland, you're covering the rear."

The pod doors hissed and rotated open, letting salty air flow inside. The group moved out and slowly across the wet rocks. Nick estimated the island was only a few hundred meters away. The water around the rocks was swarming with strange exotic fish. He doubted that they would be edible, but the survival kits had tests for that if it came down to it. The lifeboat should have enough food on board for up to three months, plus their ration kits they kept in their rucksacks; figuring out what native life was okay to eat would be a priority. Given that the planet had been green-lit for colonization, he had hope.

It was not an awfully long walk to the sandy beach of the island. Familiar palm tree analogs and bushes made up the tree line another hundred meters up the beach. It looked much like any idyllic island paradise. Up on the beach well above the tide line, they began to set up their camp. In just a few hours, they had a few tents and a radio station set up to try and contact the command boat or any other lifeboats on the surface.

Nick had put Bauer on the radio while everyone else ferried supplies back from the lifeboat. On the last run, Nick stopped by the tent after dumping the cargo. "So, got anything yet?"

Bauer shrugged. "Nein, not a peep from anyone else... It is awfully quiet out there. Earlier I was picking up the emergency beacon's local ping, but nothing on the high-power E-band."

With a heavy sigh, Nick sat down on the stool beside the radioman. "Were you able to tell where the emergency beacon crashed down? It was on the planet, right?" If the beacon was not broadcasting, the conservative estimate of a year until rescue changed to never getting rescued.

"Ja, due north-north-east. Twenty-eight point seven degrees from our receiver." He referenced something on the data-pad in front of him. "Strength placed it one-hundred and three kilometers away."

"Well, if there were any other survivors, they would also be making their way to the beacon... we should figure out what the terrain is like around here, if that is even possible for us." Nick sighed again.

"We have no maps of this planet to go on, no probes were launched by the Midnight Flame as far as I am aware, Walker."

Nick leaned back in thought briefly, an on-foot survey would take hours, and leaving camp right now was probably a bad idea. He pulled back the flap and called out. "Hey- Spanner! Grab one of the techs and see if the lifeboat has a drone on board. We need to recon the area." Spanner nodded and waved over. One of the vehicle technicians, Nick remembered her as Weaver, followed along. The two started back across the rocks toward the crash site.

"Do you think a drone will be best to search the area with all the dense forest?" Bauer asked.

He put his head in his hands and leaned against the folding table, Nick sighed for a third time. "No, I just want some high-level terrain scans. If we're on a small tropical island, we'll need another plan to get to the beacon."

"If you want some advice, have some of the others do a ground search. Keep things organized and give everyone something to do instead of standing around." Bauer said.

"Fine, let's do that. Why don't you take over leading us?" Nick and Hanz were essentially the same rank, just different services. Bauer had just let Nick take command back in the pod without raising any issue. He would be happy to put this all on his shoulders instead. Starting a camp in a survival situation was stressful. Combat can be over and done quickly, or in all fairness it could last a while, however they were looking at a situation where it was all but guaranteed to be a year before any possibility of rescue could come. That meant they needed a stable source of food that could get them through that time.

Bauer chuckled and slapped Nick on the back a few times. "No, you take charge here. You, Walker, are a Marine; I am Navy. The ground is your specialty." He took his hand back and shrugged. "You do fine, and we'll live."

He replied with a laugh of his own. "Yeah, thanks for all the pressure." Nick rubbed the top of his head, and once again addressed the others in the camp. "Ackland, you take Luzana and do a recon sweep of the forest for about three hundred meters around us. Check in with Turov every ten minutes."

"Got it," Travis grabbed Luzana and headed off toward the trees. With everyone set to task, Nick gave Bauer a hand in setting up the rest of the camp electric systems. Solar cells and battery charging stations are the lifeblood of any 26th century emergency camp, right after food and water. Back in his old life, Nick had taken a cold-water survival course which included a beach emergency camp section; so much had changed since then, but the main priorities had stayed the same. Hopefully, this camp would keep them sane for however long they were stuck there.

xxx

They had been down on the planet for a little over eleven hours, and so far, nothing had come up over the radio; no command, no lifeboats, no other survivors. They were alone. Nick had Bauer set up a radio loop, giving their general position from the beacon, and hoped that others would reply or show up.

The drone recon and on foot exploration yielded some positives about where they had landed. There was a large land bridge on the other side of the island that looked like it might connect them to the mainland where the beacon was; they at least hoped it was here and there was not another body of water between them. Plus, the toxicology scans gave the okay to eat the native fish and a handful of fruits in the forest. If it came down to a year wait for rescue, they would have the food to keep them alive.

Nick was relieved to have nothing but good news, they had all been extremely lucky over the last day. He was just waiting for something to go wrong. They would be going after the beacon soon, and he opted to leave Bauer, Spanner, Luzana and Turov to maintain camp. Bauer in charge obviously. He would lead Weaver and Ackland across the land bridge. This was his way of dumping camp responsibility on the Navy man. They both knew it, and Bauer just laughed it off. Like he said, Nick was a Marine and leading the ground Op was his thing.

The hike would take twenty-five plus hours one way; depending on terrain. The packed food from their ration supplies for a two-week expedition, just in case. Nick sighed as he clipped the straps of his pack together. He had opted to take a lighter load by leaving his heavy body armor behind. He kept the vest, and helmet.

"Alright let's get going. Bauer, we'll keep you updated with regular COM updates every five hours. I don't expect there to be any Innie activity out here. But you never know." Nick waved in the direction they would be leaving in.

"I'll keep things together here, Walker. Just make sure you get Weaver to that beacon safely. If it's damaged, we are fucked." Bauer chuckled. "Good luck."

The trio moved out into the forest, starting the trek that will hopefully lead to their eventual rescue from the planet. Above them, the small recon drone followed along, monitoring the area around them for movement. It was almost pointless in the jungle, everything moved. But it was another bit of assurance they had.

"So... anyone got a song to sing?" Ackland asked in a joking manner.

By sunset, they had only managed twenty kilometers, and the next day brought them to the land bridge. Nick stood at the spot where the island ended, and the bridge began. The recon photos from the drone had not done a decent job describing how surreal it was.

It was impossibly narrow, probably just wide enough for a Scorpion tank to dive across comfortably. But it had no vegetation aside from what looked like dune grass poking out from the clusters of rock and sand. It stretched out to the horizon, in a very slight arc. He did not even see the other end from where he was. It just jutted out of a pile of rocks on the side of the island, not matching the terrain at all.

"Anyone else getting weird feelings from this thing?" Nick asked.

Weaver bent down where the land bridge met the water and looked across the horizon from there. "Yeah... it just feels too... perfect."

Ackland crouched down beside her and followed the edge with his gaze. "Not really any sign of erosion here." he got up and checked the other side. "And the land just slopes off into deep water on either side. Doesn't look like a shelf or anything. Fuckin' weird."

"Well, I'm not able to swim thirty-five kilometers and I wouldn't call our inflatable raft seaworthy, so I guess we'll keep walking..." Nick stepped off the rocks of the island, and onto the sand covered land bridge. Nothing happened to him, so the others hopped down beside him, and they started across. Out some miles from the island, they became aware of a slight hum just barely audible over the sound of waves crashing against the sides. It was slightly... pleasing, which was just as concerning as hearing it in the first place. But they could only quicken their pace

Nick checked their progress on the drone, and they were about twenty kilometers deep into the ocean. That had been a lot of walking. There was a wide spot coming up, trees and bushes sprouted on either side of the land bridge; just not on the middle portion itself. It was really strange, and that feeling of unnaturalness never left. According to the drone, they had only ten more kilometers until they were back on the mainland. They hoped, that feeling would be gone there.

Aside from the one island that grew off the land bridge, it stayed a consistent width. Not wider, nor narrower. They were all glad when the mainland grew larger and larger on the horizon. This end of the land bridge met the beach in a natural manner, both areas of land were at the same height, it was just as if some giant hand had grabbed a tiny bit of this beach and drug it across the sea until it met the other island.

Traveling inland, they ventured into the jungle after lining back up on the beacon's signal. The tracking signal was not needed so much anymore; the massive column of smoke was a good indicator where the ship went down. Nick sent the drone ahead to map the terrain, now that the supposed location of the beacon was within the drone's flight range.

The images they got back were not very pleasing. The jungle transitioned into a swamp not too far ahead, and that continued to the crash site. It appeared that the Midnight Flame had broken up when it entered the atmosphere, the crash site they were approaching was only a chunk of the lower hull, and probably where the beacon launch tube had been at one time. Not much of the actual terrain was visible through the fog and smoke that filled the area.

Camp was set for the second night at the edge of the swamp; they would need a full day to make it through the swamp and back. Nobody wanted to sleep on damp ground. While Nick had first watch, he could hear something out deep in the murky water. It was splashing around, while making guttural growling sounds; it sounded big. Hopefully, whatever it was stayed asleep during the day.

By dawn on the third day, they had ventured into the swamp, which was more of a bayou, on their inflatable survival raft. The water was brackish, and the smell of wet wood rot was heavy in the air. Smoke began to blow towards them as the winds shifted, giving everything a hazy look.

The small powered motor pushed them quietly through the water, Nick reduced the throttle when a large shape emerged from the smoke just a few hundred meters from the crash site. There was a D77-TC Pelican, the same variant that had been on their ship. It was half submerged in the water and mud at an angle that put its left wing deep in the ground. But it was definitely not something that crashed with the wreckage.

It had been flown here, and then crashed.

"Ready weapons everyone. This doesn't sit right." Nick tightened his grip on his rifle while steering with his free hand. He brought them around the Pelican for a better look at it.

Weaver leaned over and wiped some of the muck from the tail of the ship. "Lima-three-eleven... that was one of ours. I did maintenance on her last week."

"Uh, Walker... The cockpit is uh... full of blood." Ackland leaned over and shone his flashlight through the windscreen. "It's bits and pieces in there."

Nick swung his head around and scanned the area. Were they going into an ambush? He had no clue. Beaching the boat up on the submerged wing, he hopped out and launched the drone into the air. Their immediate area was clear of any Human heat signatures, or Covenant for that matter, but the background heat was still too high from the crash to be absolutely sure. "We need to get this beacon set and get out of here as soon as possible."

"Don't need to tell me twice. This place gives me the creeps." Weaver offered her hand to Nick and pulled him back aboard. They pushed off from the wing and resumed their path towards the beacon's location.

Chunks of mud and entire trees had been upended and thrown around from the impact zone. There were no trees anywhere close to the wreck itself. The water was warm, and fog was lazily drifting across the surface. It was eerily quiet.

They pulled up to the ship debris and were not surprised to find that everything to get the emergency beacon going had already been pulled out. Everything was wired up and in place, only the switch had not been pulled.

"Okay... more weirdness." Ackland muttered.

Weaver hopped up onto the platform whoever had been here before had set up and began to inspect all the parts. "Well, this all looks right. I don't see any reason why it hasn't been turned on yet. Where the fuck is everyone?"

Nick had climbed up on the platform and was standing behind her. He glanced around again, on the lookout for anything. "Just turn it on." He clicked his COM twice and switched to a general UNSC band. "This is Corporal Walker, UNSC Marines. Is there anyone alive on this frequency? Particularly near the emergency beacon crash site."

He did not expect any response but was surprised when his COM clicked, and a shaky voice spoke quietly. "Corporal... Private Foulks... is that you near the beacon, I can hear voices."

Nick once again did a three-sixty look around. "Yes, Private. We're here right next to it."

The Private coughed over the channel, and Nick could hear the muffled sound coming from behind one of the supply compartment doors in the shipwreck. "Is it safe to come out? Are the animals gone?"

"Animals? We don't see any out here. It's been animal free for the last twenty minutes we've been here." Nick replied.

"Good... I'm coming out." The supply door pushed outward and a Marine in a torn and battered vacuum suit crawled out onto the deck. His legs were completely exposed, the suit nothing more than tatters there. "I need a medic..."

Ackland rushed over and took a knee beside him. "Closest we've got is me right now, man." He took a kit from his rucksack and began to apply disinfectant and wrap up the wounds. "What happened here?"

"We touched down yesterday evening... I think... And started to set up the beacon." He winced as Ackland treated the wounds. "We had no idea anything was creeping up on us until the Pelican pitched down and crashed into the swamp, and then the comms were full of screaming." He shook his head for a second. "Animals swarmed us, when we couldn't hold the platform, Sergeant Morgan shoved me into the storage cubby, then tried to climb in herself..." He stopped, took a breath and sat there for a second.

"The Sergeant got pulled out, then the damn thing tried to claw me out. That's what fucked my legs up. But someone fired a few shots into its side and it left, and then the door slammed shut. I've been inside ever since. Those animals killed everyone I think."

Nick nodded solemnly, but also gave the water and mud around them a long look. It was still and quiet around the crash site, aside from the occasional insect sounds. "I'm sorry... but did they make any noises? Something that would alert us if they were coming back?"

Foulks shook his head. "No... we didn't hear anything over the sound of the Pelican. We thought we were safe out here."

"Well Private, we'll get you back to our camp, it's far from this place. Should be safer." Nick glanced back towards the emergency beacon. "Weaver, how long until that thing is broadcasting?!"

"Just a second, everything looks good. I'll power it up now." Weaver flipped the switch on the beacon. There was a brief high-pitched whine and then the light on the beacon began to pulse green. They were actively sending a signal beyond orbit. Hopefully, someone, somewhere will be listening... at least he hoped it was not someone Covenant.

"Okay let's get out of here. I don't want to be around whenever those animals show up again." Nick said, waving back towards the little raft they had used to get there. "Foulks, what did they look like?"

"Uh... they were like fuzzy crocodiles, from Earth, you know?" He replied, climbing down to the raft on shaky legs.

"Yes... I do know what those are." Nick nodded again. "Did you manage to kill any of them?"

The Private shook his head, "I don't know, it happened all too fast."

"Alright," Nick dropped down into the boat and moved to the back, Weaver took point on the bow, and they were off. The little hydrogen motor whirred, and they zipped back towards the edge of the swamp they started from. They started out fast, but then bogged down when all the plant matter in the water kept interfering with the prop.

The entire time, Weaver and Ackland had rifles up and eyes trained across the bayou. Yet nothing jumped out at them, at least until the sun began to fall behind the mountains.

There was a roar that echoed over the water, nearly identical to the one they had heard the night before. Large splashes could be heard coming towards them. Ackland shouted and fired. "Contact incoming. Left side, thirty meters!"

"Diverting!" Nick turned the boat in the other direction of the incoming contact and increased the throttle. He shot a glance briefly to see what Ackland was shooting at. It was actually a big crocodile... bear thing. It had fur like a bear, but a head like a crocodile, and it swam fast along the surface right for them.

The bullets plinked into the creature's hide and just seemed to make the animal angrier. "What is this thing, a Brute?!" Ackland grumbled as he reloaded.

"Another one, right side forty meters and closing." Weaver announced. She opened fire with her DMR, slow regular shots, compared to Ackland's MA5B.

Nick kept them as steady as he could, all the while dodging trees and other alien fauna. The waypoint on his eye piece that was on the coast of the swamp was getting ever closer, if they were lucky, these things are slower on land than the water.

Ackland shouted and threw his fist in the air. "Hey! I got mine."

Sparing a glance from the path ahead, Nick looked over to confirm that Travis was right; the left animal had stopped swimming after them and lied bobbing in the water. Within moments, about a dozen more of the Croco-bears swarmed the corpse from below and began to viciously tear it apart. On the right, the other creature continued to charge for them. Ackland switched over and opened fire to support Weaver.

The Private had no weapon to fire and was just sitting in the middle of the raft with panic, so Nick offered him his rifle. Even with all three firing, the thing that ultimately killed the beast was another creature, drawn by the struggle or the blood, more of the animals swarmed and tore it apart. They kept motoring through, hopefully there was enough meat in the water to keep them off their tail.

Nick could almost see the shoreline they had camped at the night before, when the raft was bumped sharply from below. His grip on the motor housing kept him steady, but everyone else was tossed around. Ackland fell back over the edge, his arm trailing into the water, and head dangling above. Weaver and Foulks both reacted at once and rushed to pull him back in. But one of the smaller creatures had swum up from below and latched onto Ackland's arm, causing him to scream hysterically. Point blank, Weaver jammed the barrel of her DMR into the Croco-bear's mouth and fired into it. Blood flew from the creature's maw, and it roared in pain. It released Ackland's arm and slowly stopped moving, left behind in their wake. It had done damage to the raft, and they were losing air in the side.

Nick laid on the throttle and brought them to max, where there was a danger of overheating, however they would not need it for long. They hit the shoreline and slid across the muddy ground for a few meters, and when they came to a rest Ackland had already been bandaged up and given a dose of painkillers and stims. His arm was pinned to his side with wrap, but Nick could already see the blood seeping through.

"We need to keep moving, pop some caffeine stims and move." Nick hopped off the boat and aimed his M6 back towards the water.

"Hell yeah, there's no way we're making camp on this shore," Weaver helped Ackland out of the raft and took some stims herself.

Back towards the water, one of the animals climbed onto the shoreline. Unlike what Nick and everyone expected, the Croco-bear was not a low-lying belly dragger. The monster stood tall on long legs with webbed feet. It looked like it could run- fast.

Ackland used his free arm and primed a grenade. "Frag out!" He tossed it at the thing and took off in the direction of the landbridge.

Nick and the rest of the team turned and followed with haste. The Grenade detonated and blew the creature to bits behind them. Explosives made short work of them, and he hoped again that the dozens of bloody chunks would keep them off the menu for good.

The caffeine stims and pure fear kept them on a double time march back through the mountains, and onto the land bridge. They had not stopped for longer than five minutes the whole way. A good place for camp would be the small island in the middle of the landbridge. Sure, they were surrounded by water, but they had not seen or heard anything larger than some salmon in the water near them the whole time before.

"Okay, I think this is far enough for camp." Nick muttered before taking a sip of lukewarm water from the hydration pack on his back.

"Sounds good... to me." Ackland panted. His bandages had been replaced on the march. The wound had not been as bad as he had initially thought, just some gouges and scratches. Nothing worse than what the Private had on his legs.

Nick was exhausted and just dropped onto the sand. They had hiked all through the night to get back to a point where they felt safe, even still, they would have a guard on watch while they took turns sleeping. He did not like the idea of starting again the next evening, but they just made nearly a day and a half worth of progress in eight hours. Rest was needed.

Private Foulks also flopped down to the sand, his leg bandages had not been replaced and were starting to bleed through. He drank and looked up and down the landbridge. "Uh, is anyone else getting weird vibes from this?"

"Yeah man," Weaver hit his shoulder with her fist while she walked past him towards the small clump of trees near the middle. "We were talking about it the whole way over. Wait till' you see the other side."

The system's sun was starting to rise and lit up the sky toward the east. Nick subtly became aware of a rumble rising above the strange hum they were already used to. The rumble was coming from the sky and getting louder. "Are those engines?" He hauled himself back to his feet and started to scan the horizon.

"I... I think so. Way too big to be a Pelican." Ackland was also looking all around. "Definitely not Covie, that is one hundred percent human engineering."

The COM cracked on the UNSC E-band; it was Bauer back at camp trying to hail whatever was coming in. This meant they were probably coming from that direction. "Mayday, Mayday, Mayday. Unknown ship, this is Petty Officer Bauer, we are survivors of the UNSC. Midnight Flame. Mayday, Mayday. Please respond."

They all turned towards camp as a streak of light appeared over the island's singular mountain. Weaver had a monocular out and was scoping the streak. It approached and the heat of reentry cooled. Nick lost sight of it, but it seemed that Weaver still had it.

"Corporal Walker, that thing is a Prowler, it's ONI." Weaver adjusted the scope and followed it across the sky.

"I mean that makes sense, right?" Private Foulks asked. "Every carrier group has a prowler shadowing it."

Nick nodded, "Yeah, but where has it been the last four days?"

The Prowler whooshed overhead, its smooth black ablative plating nearly fading into the early morning darkness; it was headed for the beacon site. Nick grabbed a flare kit from his rucksack and fired it into the sky to signal their location. The pulsing green light burst high in the air and began to drift back down to the ground.

Bauer's mayday call continued to go off over the E-band unanswered.

"What the fuck are they doing, we're right here!" Weaver shouted. "The ship looks like it's landing at the beacon site."

Minutes passed and they built a large bonfire in the middle of the beach. Suddenly the consistent beep of the emergency beacon went quiet, and the high-powered SOS broadcast ceased.

"Uh... what does that mean guys?" Faulks asked no one in particular.

Weaver looked to Nick, and then Ackland. "Nothing good..." She raised the monocular and looked out towards the east. "I can see it again, lifting off and heading back this way."

Nick fired another flare into the sky. It burst again and was simply blown away by the Prowler leaving the area. Despite everyone waving, the Mayday call, and their flares, the Prowler ignored them. He flipped the retreating craft the bird as it burned back into orbit. "Fuck you, Spooks! Goddamnit."

Weaver tossed her monocular at the ground and it bounced across the sand. "Those bastards are just leaving us behind!"

Ackland, who seemed to be the calmest of everyone, waved them down. "Hold on, hold on. You all know ONI; they have strict operational parameters." Nick ceased his cussing and looked to Travis, starting to follow what he was saying. He continued. "They know we're here, there's no way they missed all our signals. They just can't break radio silence. They'll put us on the next report, or hell, send an emergency message right away."

Faulks seemed to be on the same wavelength as Ackland. "A rescue ship is probably already on the way! That's why it took four days; they came back after the crash."

Nick shook his head. "God... I hope you two are right. Either way, fuck ONI." He sighed and dropped back down to the sand. Popping open his rucksack, he took out a canvas boonie hat and shook out the crushed bits. "We still need to rest. Foulks, you were the last to get any sleep recently, so you get first watch. Wake me in two hours."

With that, Nick propped his head up on his rucksack and dropped the hat over his face. The next few hours went by quickly. Sleep felt like nothing at all, and then his turn on watch was spent watching the water for any signs of animal activity. Nothing bothered them the whole time. Well, his head was bothered by that hum that was consistent across the entire land bridge.

He checked in with Bauer while the other slept and filled him in on what had happened, and what Ackland and Foulks had theorized about the Prowler flyover. That seemed to brighten spirits on the other end, and Bauer agreed with the idea. He was Navy, so he probably understood more of ONIs actions than Nick did. He caught a few more hours of shuteye when Weaver took over, and then they were on their way again.

When they crossed the other end of the land bridge, Foulks had the same reaction the rest of them had when they first saw it. Just absolute confusion: it just did not match the landscape at all. But Nick ushered them on, he did not want to spend much time at the edge. Camp was about a day's hike from this point, and it would just feel wrong to stop only an hour from being back. So, they pushed on with haste, across the island.

They stomped out onto the beach and into camp just after sunset. Nick had radioed ahead to let them know they were almost back, and he smelled coffee coming from the meal kit cup that Bauer offered him. He accepted the coffee and eyed the Navy man. "What is this for? You know I'd rather sleep."

"Ja, ja, I know. But Private Luzana and Lance Corp Miller found something while they were out getting fresh water. It is... something you should see." Bauer waved for him to follow. "The others can rest."

Nick nodded to his small team and went to follow Bauer through the trees. He downed the coffee and set the cup onto a small folding table. "How far is it from camp?"

Bauer shrugged. "Maybe five or ten minutes?"

"Can't tell me what it is?" Nick asked, following through the forest.

"Walker, I have no idea what it is."

Nick was sore and tired from the hike there, but he kept on going. There were times that he wished that he would have never joined the Marines, this was one of them. But then he reminded himself why he had joined up in the first place, though even those reasons were shaky at best.

He thought about the first time he had actually seen any Covenant up close; he had been absolutely terrified, but that small bit of old Nick was really excited. Old Nick popped out still sometimes, when he saw something 'iconic' or whenever he got to use scavenged Covenant weaponry. Even then, it had been thirteen years since he had woken up in that hospital, and twelve of that had been wartime. Humanity kept losing and people kept dying around him. It made his childhood appreciation of the Covenant feel conflicting. The only thing that stopped him from spiraling into a confused mess was the understanding that there was nothing he could do about the war, and it would end in a victory.

Bauer led him to a large pool of water with a waterfall falling into it. "Quite picturesque" he admitted, almost too perfect. "It's here behind the waterfall." Bauer said.

"Isn't that a little cliché?" Nick glanced back at Bauer before stepping through the water. He turned on his helmet lamp and looked around.

Behind the waterfall was a large cave opening and gleaming at the far end was something that made him feel that giddy feeling again.

Blue silver metal reflected his light back to him. Beautiful metal, it was dirty with age but was still shiny. This was the first time he had seen Forerunner construction since he was on that couch with Michelle. "Holy... shit."

"Yeah, that is what I said too." Bauer said, following him through the water. "What do you think it is?"

"Haven't got a clue, other than it not being from the Covenant." Nick ogled over the structure. He found the door nestled between two pillars and a cluster of stalagmites. Its lights dimly glowed red showing that it was locked tight. "Damn," he muttered.

"You're sure it's not Covenant?" Bauer asked.

Nick shook his head. "I don't think so. Its color and shapes are all wrong. You know those bastards are all about the purple... bulbous... shapes." He was making up reasons for what he already knew, saying something that others would probably believe.

With a slow nod, Bauer agreed. "I suppose you're right. New aliens then?"

"Whatever it is, it's really old." He approached the door and a blue and gold control panel flickered into existence beside it. Nick knew this panel; he had seen it countless times before.

"Whoa-" Bauer took a step towards him but made no move to stop him. "Walker, what are you doing?"

He calmly pressed his hand to the projected control surface and felt the resistance of the Hard-Light interface. There was a deep clunk and the lighting on the door shifted to a cool cyan color before sliding open to more darkness beyond.

"How did you know to do that?" the stunned Petty Officer asked.

Nick chuckled to himself. "I'm just good with doors."

Before heading into the ancient structure, they headed back to camp for supplies and to grab the others. All the exhaustion from the last day had left their body at Nick's description of what they had found. Against their protest, he ordered Ackland and Foulks to remain at camp since they were injured, and the waterfall entry might prove difficult. Foulks argued that he had made the whole hike back, but Nick just pointed out that Ackland would literally need a hand around camp.

Five hours later, they had a series of small camp lights and forty-eight-hour chem-lights illuminating the main chambers of the structure. Much to Nick's disappointment, there did not seem to be anything inherently obvious about the bottom room. Weaver and Turov theorized the space might be a service area, with all the pipes near the ceiling that was hard to argue about.

There was a ramp at the far end that led up to a bunch of large empty rooms on the floor above, some were oddly shaped, and some were just plain squares. All the ceilings on the upper floor were at least four meters high, making Nick feel quite small; the lights left the ceiling in shadow most of the time.

Power to the structure seemed to be set to something like a reserve system. Doors opened and there was dim lighting around some of the upper floors. Another ramp room took them up farther, it was as if the structure followed the entire contour of the mountain. Nick was on the hunt for the main power switch. With a vote, they decided to move the camp into the structure; it was out of the rain and weather and seemed to be safe enough.

On day five, it was Turov who found it. A large holo-panel had flashed to life in one of the smaller rooms upstairs, and he had pushed one of the flashing green icons. The ground had begun to shake, and the entire facility hummed to life. Small white lights appeared at the bottom of the walls all over the area, and pulsing lines lit the halls. Nick had to steady himself on the wall as the shaking progressed. The odd shaped walls moved, pushing away dirt and plants as they dropped down to become open space outside. The hillside had been moved, dislodging massive trees which tumbled down towards the beach. Fresh air flowed inwards and filled the ancient corridors. Then the shaking stopped, and the balconies were free of dirt.

"Well... that was impressive." Nick stepped out onto the balcony and looked around outside. Massive mounds of dirt had shifted to reveal more ancient structures that were stained brown with age. Bright spotlights aimed up at the sheer cliff of the island's mountain as if to highlight it. And in that light, it did look grand and magnificent. He could see other pillars of light shooting into the sky from other areas on the island as well. Just from what he could see, he guessed if viewed from orbit the island would look like it had been decorated for the holidays.

"Walker?! What the hell just happened?" It was Lance Corporal Spanner, calling up from the beach. The radio setup was too established to move, so everyone took a two person shift there in case someone called in. There was no way they could have missed all the lights in the sky.

Nick glanced back at Turov who was taking pictures of the control panel with his data-pad. "Our crewman friend found the light switch." He replied.

"Is that so?" Spanner said with a hint of jest. "Well, it got the attention of the Prowler. Comms going crazy with someone who calls themselves Captain Pearson ordering us to stop whatever the hell we're doing and hold in place."

"Let them know we will be standing by then. 'Awaiting orders, Captain'." Nick replied, this probably just got them pushed up in priority.

"Understood, I'll pass the message along." Spanner clicked off their SQUADCOM channel and presumably switched to the Prowler's.

Nick turned back to everyone still in the structure. "Hey, good news. The Prowler has started talking to us now, maybe we're getting off this planet sooner than we thought!"

"Das great." Bauer replied.

"I don't know if that's good news, Walker," Weaver shook her head. "My brother works for ONI, and if they changed their operation parameters... Then we probably fucked something up."

Nick was silent for a moment. "...Well... I hope we didn't do anything too bad."

Turov looked a bit sheepish from the control panel. "Other than activating some ancient alien structure, whose purpose is unknown to us... Maybe I should turn it off again?"

"No, don't touch anything else. They want hands off for now." Nick said.

"Fine, fine." Turov took a step back, away from the console. "No more touchy."

Nick decided to move everyone out onto one of the balconies to wait for further orders. The orders that eventually came just expanded on the earlier orders: hold position, don't touch anything, and wait for extraction. Pelicans had already been launched to pick them up.

The thought of imminent rescue flicked a switch in the collective minds of the survivors. They began to realize they had not thought about all their fellow shipmates that had not made it through the last week.

People they had known for years might all be dead. Nick thought they should all see a counselor later. Sure, they all knew someone who had died, also other entire ships had been destroyed. But it was not easy.

The twin sonic booms of the incoming Pelicans echoed across the island and brought them back to alertness.

Weaver was the first to speak. "I hope Archie from Engineering made it off. He owes me fifty credits."

Bauer put his hand on her shoulder and gave it a shake. "Ah, don't worry about it too much. I'm sure they'll find more pods."

Nick and his squad had been lucky that they had all been together and not on one of the Pelicans that went after the station. Though Private Foulks was living proof that some of those Marines had made it through; maybe more were just out there without proper COMs.

It was not long before the spotlight from a hovering Pelican flashed over them. He raised an arm and waved to the dropship. The balcony platform was large enough to land on, and Nick briefly wondered if that was its purpose. One of the Pelicans remained overhead while the other landed on the platform.

When the rear hatch opened, seven soldiers in black armor and hazmat gear piled out of the troop bay. The black and white sigil of the Office of Naval Intelligence was prominently displayed on their shoulder patches. Nick knew that ONI was bad news, but they were a necessary evil as long as this war went on.

The troopers did not aim their rifles at them, much to Nick's surprise, instead they fanned out and secured the rest of the platform. Two suited individuals disembarked the Pelican and approached the group of survivors with hand-held scanners. The green light on them flashed for each person, he hoped that was a good thing.

One of them had Lieutenant bars on their uniform and had to shout over the sound of the Pelicans' engines. "Corporal, is this everyone here?!"

"No, Ma'am! There's two more back on the beach. They were injured." Nick replied.

"Were they exposed to the structure?!" The Lieutenant asked.

"Yes, Ma'am! We all have." Nick repeated.

She turned her faceplate up to the other Pelican and pointed down the hillside, toward the beach. The craft veered off and headed in the direction of their basecamp to pick up Ackland and Foulks. Looking back to them, the Lieutenant directed them into the troop bay.

Nick and his group piled in and clipped into the crash seats. Once the other soldiers had reboarded, the Lieutenant sat across from Nick. "Were you the one in charge here?

Another bout of: "Yes, Ma'am." It was ONI, they did not need more information. The Pelican lifted off from the platform and began to accelerate upwards. They were on their way home.

"Well, Corporal Walker, I am Lieutenant Pike, Office of Naval Intelligence... But I think you are aware of that. Three things are going to happen once we dock with our ship. First: You will all go through a decontamination shower, then a medical examination, and finally you will all enter cryo until officers who are authorized to debrief you arrive. Do not talk about what happened here. Do you all understand?"

This time everyone else joined in with the reply. Lieutenant Pike nodded; her face still obscured behind the mirrored visor of the hazmat helmet.

As the Pelican climbed in altitude, Nick watched the island shrink away. All the lights made it obvious where the Forerunner structure was, however, a line of flashing lights drew his gaze to the east. It was the land bridge, at least it had been the land bridge at one time. All the sand had disappeared and revealed that it was actually a long corridor surging with power. There were not many details he could make out from where they were, though.

Not another word was spoken until they docked in the Prowlers small hangar bay. The rear hatch opened into a small confined space covered in disposable plastic sheeting. Nick looked around cautiously, and Lieutenant Pike noticed.

"We were unsure what you may have been exposed to in the structure. It was just a precaution." She waved him and the others along.

The showers had been cordoned off for them, and a receptacle cart for their gear was off in a corner. A long hot shower was very pleasing after spending the last few days roughing it in the outdoors. He put on a provided medical gown, which made sense with cryo sleep right after the exam; clothes and cryo just did not mix.

His medical exam came back with everything in the green, nothing unusual. The doctor on duty was not even wearing a hazmat suit. But then he was practically shoved into a cryopod and put on ice until later.

When they eventually did thaw him and the other survivors of the Midnight Flame out from cryo-sleep, they were not even in the same stellar system anymore. The Office of Naval Intelligence had moved their pods into another ship and sent them back towards the inner colonies. Nick got only a few moments to catch his breath, cough the gunk out of his throat before a technician shoved a standard uniform into his hands and told him to be debriefed in ten minutes. He accepted the uniform and took a second to visually confirm that everyone else that he had been responsible for had been brought along. His ad hoc squad of marines and Navy crewmembers were all doing the same as he had been moments earlier.

He pulled on the uniform and took a look around again. He was in a groundside Cryo-bay, unusual, but not unheard of. Exactly where in the universe they were was still unknown, and the base number on the wall was not familiar. The Technician directed him out of the bay and into the corridor beyond where there was a Staff Sergeant with a data-pad waiting for him.

"Staff Sergeant," Nick nodded.

"Corporal Walker, you are to report to room seven-charlie for debriefing, welcome back to Reach." the Sergeant said.

Nick nodded in reply, "Thank you Staff Sergeant." That answered where they had ended up, this was likely an ONI facility. Up until that point, he had never been inside of one, thankfully.

The room was not far down the hall; it sported a bland medium sized black desk. The one chair on his side of the table was probably his, so he sat.

After only a few minutes, a group of ONI officers and Scientists in the expected lab coats walked in. He stood and saluted the officers. They returned the salute and had him sit back down and began the show.

The debriefing went on for about five hours and was just an intense back and forth of questions from semi-polite scientists, and harsh grilling from ONI Officers about not just touching random alien buttons. Nick understood that admitting he had sort of known what he was doing with that door control was a very bad idea, so he just sat there and took it. It still made him feel like shit.

Once the questions were over, they made him sign about half a dozen non-disclosure agreements and, under threat of capital punishment, he was sworn to secrecy. The only way he could ever tell someone about what they found was if they gave him the proper code-word. Nick assumed that everyone else was getting the same thing he was, at least he hoped so.

Then they offered him a job.

Agree to work with them, and they would get him fast-tracked to train as an Orbital Drop Shock Trooper, and then assigned to an ONI officer. They would rather have someone that knew about the Forerunners under their wing than just floating off in the normal Navy. The job had some generous perks, better pay, healthcare, and they promised that he would be away from the front line most of the time.

Nick had to really think about it; but in the end, he had to take any advantage he could to survive the war. He had only joined so that he could avoid the draft and pick where he wanted to go, though in hindsight, the Marines were the worst possible decision. He should have joined the Air Force.

So, he said yes.