Chapter 5: The Ring.

Ship: Pillar of Autumn. Date: September 12th, 2552, 07:00.

Kat lie in bed, yet again. With Six in Cryo sleep and most Marines just staring at her, she felt lonely. She hadn't gone in with him since she wanted to get better with her situational awareness.
It wouldn't even be another two days or so before they landed at Earth, but first they'd need to hop around random places, so the Covenant couldn't trace them back to Earth.
If the Covenant found earth the war would be over in days.
Humanity might even surrender if It were to be found.

Keyes was great at distractions, and tactical plans. Just like Kat, they both had something in common.
As she lie in bed she kept thinking about heading off to go into Cryo sleep. But that meant putting her armor back on. Another day passed, Kat had slightly improved her situational awareness, it would get her killed some day if she didn't deal with it.
The autumn had nothing to do aboard it, besides training. Recreational activities were absent. She was getting lonelier by the minute.

Kat had decided to head down to the mess hall.

"Hmph..." Kat sighed, looking over at the few Marines still awake, in the mess hall.
Suddenly Chipps came to sit with her, noticing that she was stiff and nervous. "Didn't know a Spartan could cry." He teased. Kat rolled her eyes; grateful he had sat down.
"You looking forward to seeing Earth again?" Chipps asked. "Not really, ever since new harmony was glassed... I guess I just wanted to fight.
Wish I was back home." Chips stayed silent for several more seconds. He hadn't known that Kat had her home planet glassed.

"Where'd you grow up?" Kat asked, eager to make a new friend. "New Zealand, Earth. Pretty dandy there." She could tell the Marine was homesick.
Kat and Chips kept talking, there was literally nothing else to do.
Besides training, and Kat could just do that on the field. It was almost noon before they headed to their dorms. 11:29 to be exact. 31 More minutes until Keyes would speak over the Ship wide speaker to make an announcement.
Everyone would get back into their armor, including Kat.

That also meant getting everyone back to their stations, arriving at Earth would mean a lot to do beforehand. Kat read a book; she got it from Carter last Christmas.
The original gift He had given her burned on Reach, along with many doomed souls. But she picked up a copy of the book Via the replicator.
Kat was going through a lot. Seeing her planet burn to the ground as she narrowly escaped, going though torture like training for years, and then losing her arm. All of the stress brought along self-doubt, hatred and suicidal thoughts at times.

Carter was genuinely the only thing keeping her alive at times. The battlefield seemed more friendly to her.
Now it was Six, and he was about to get out of Cryo, along with Chief and several other important crewmembers. The book was hundreds of years old, "To kill a mockingbird."
It was an interesting read, fairly long and pretty entertaining all the way through, although she was only done with half a chapter before the Speaker went off.
"All crewmembers, I repeat ALL crewmembers, report to the main bridge for your responsibility, the Cryo tubes are opening up as soon as we exit slip space." Kat heard Keyes over the speaker, he was a fabulous leader.

Only five more minutes until Six had gotten out. The Pillar of Autumn made a weird sound as it exited slip space. As they had exited, Kat noticed that there was something off about where they were located.
There was a Planet, and not just a planet that wasn't supposed to be there, but a humongous Ringworld directly in front of it...

Ship: Pillar of Autumn. Date: September 13, 2552, 12:06.

"What the fuck!? What is that?" A Marine shouted from behind Kat. She looked behind to see that at least 5 more Marines had entered the Room. All of them were either staring at her, or the mysterious Ringworld.
She could tell they thought she was, hot, to say the least.
"Keep your eyes on that, thing." She ordered sarcastically. Six had gotten out of Cryo, that meant they would get to reunite once more. She was extremely excited, although she needed to report back to maintenance to put her Mjolnir armor back on.
Kat had taken a couple minutes to get into her armor, although it was significantly faster than what she had thought it would be.

As she was walking down to the Cryo bay, where the Spartans would sleep, Kat noticed something... Something Strange.
A Covenant super cruiser right above the ring had just dropped out of slip space. All Marines aboard heard about it within seconds. At least 50 of them rushed to the windows to see.
"How in the world did they already find us?!" A Marine shouted. Kat panicked; she knew they were going to board them. At least Keyes hopped around the Galaxy first so they couldn't find Earth. Within seconds the two ships engaged in combat...

The Autumns lower levels had partially exploded from a suicide bombing Phantom, full to the brim with explosives. Keyes ordered all personnel to abandon ship and flee to the Ringworld. Already they were being boarded by Covenant forces.
Soon after, a huge squad of Elites, Jackals and Grunts came rushing in to eviscerate the Autumns presence. But this ship wouldn't go down without a fight.
10+ pods ejected onto the Ring's surface, but the Covenant used a tricky, and smart strategy. They waited for the pods to eject, destroyed them, and then board through the pod's docking bay.
A huge fight commenced among the Pillar's crew, an uncountable amount of people, and aliens died within minutes.

It was a bloodbath...
Kat ran through the corridors and saw, an ungodly amount of blood and gore throughout the small, crammed hallways. She was looking for Chief and Six. Suddenly a door exploded right on her face, it was unexpected, and completely not her fault. It was a trap made by several Grunts on an attempt to surprise attack her. "HOLY SH-" She was cut off by the fire of Plasma pistols and repeaters, A few Elites accompanied the Grunts.
She kicked An Elite out of the way, it had tried blading her to death. Suddenly a door behind her opened up, and a squad of Marines came rushing out.

A small battle started between the Few Marines and the seemingly overwhelmingly infinite number of Forces coming through those pods. "AHHHHHHH!" Chips shouted as he came rushing out the door.
He had thrown a Grenade right into the doorway full of Enemies. BOOOOM! They had all died, besides two Elites. One had run for its life while sustaining Fragmentation shard wounds, it was slowly bleeding to death.
The other one was quickly killed with efficiency, Chips had shot it 4 times in the head, cracked its shields and head shotted it. Kat had quickly gotten up; she needed a weapon.
"Oh, Uh hello Kat, fancy seeing you here." Chips said aloud.
She looked over at him. Her Emotions were mostly absent now that the Armor was on.

"I need a weapon." She ordered a Marine behind him. "We need to regroup with Chief and Six, then head for the escape pods, got it?" "Understood ma'am." Chips replied.
Kat reloaded her weapon and cocked it back. "Let's find Six and Chief..."
The squad of Marines followed Kat through the Corridors; she was carefully looking around corners for enemies. And not to her surprise, she spotted a few of them. "Grenade." She said, hinting at that she needed one to take care of the Enemies.
Chips had handed her one, he was very reliable and super trustworthy. The years he had spent fighting did not traumatize him; he simply accepted his reality.
Kat could tell, even behind the armor that Chips liked her. As a friend of course.

BOOM! The grenade exploded and killed the enemies. They passed through several more rooms and halls, and finally spotted Chief. He was slaughtering a group of Grunts. 11 of them, all brutally killed in seconds by the hyper-lethal Spartan. He was feared by even Marines he passed by. "Chief!" Kat looked over and saw him through a Mess Hall.
He looked over her in milliseconds. The Spartan was accompanied by Cortana, which Kat, Emile and Six had delivered. "Cortana had identified her as Catherine-B320 of Beta company.
"Catherine, where's Keyes?" The Spartan was notably quiet. "He's on the bridge, he should be speaking over the speaker any second now."

He had waited a couple seconds to respond, Chief had already made a plan. "Hey! Sir! Over here, Captain want's you on the Bridge ASAP," Chips had shouted to the Spartan.
"Better come with me!" "Regroup with me at the South section of the Ship, we're heading' to the Surface." Chief headed off with Chips to find Captain Keyes, who was still on the bridge, despite the fact that the ship was being overwhelmed.
Six came rushing through a doorway, Kat had spotted him. "We're heading to the south section of the ship, follow me."
"Yes Ma'am." Six had replied.
She was glad to see Six again, he could tell as well. Unexpectedly, a doorway had exploded, and killed a Marine that was in front of Kat.

Several Elites came through, armed with Plasma repeaters. They gunned down several Marines before Six and Kat had taken care of them. Her and Six made an excellent pair, they were perfectly synced together in battle.
Kat had a sticky grenade, or "Plasma grenade" as the Marines called it. She stuck an Elite in the head. "AROUHHHOBADUH!" It had screamed in horror in the seconds it hadn't exploded.
"PSHBOOM!" It had blown the Sangheli's head clean off. Although, "Clean" was exactly the opposite of the site Kat had saw.

"Damn," Six remarked. "When'd you get so good?" Kat looked over at Six, with a smile under her helmet. "This morning." She replied with a hint of sarcasm in her voice.
Six smirked under his Mjolnir.
Only a couple other Marines followed the two Spartans, it would take them at least 15 minutes to arrive at their destination. The Autumn was a huge ship, and that was an understatement.
A group of Marines in the ship's main mess hall were fighting off hordes of Elites, who were armed with Energy swords.
Six and Kat passed by, wanting to quickly help the few Marines left.
"DUCK!" Six ordered a Marine standing in his way. Six threw a Plasma grenade. Thankfully, the doors shut, and the explosion was only on the Elite's side of the door.

"You alright?" Kat asked the 4 Marines, who were hiding. "I- I guess. They tore right through our defenses. We were helpless." That was the exact truth, there were at least 3 Marines on the floor, sliced in half by the Bladed Elites.
"Come with us, we're escaping to the surface, then regrouping from there." "But the captain! He's still aboa-"
Kat had cut him off. "Chief is helping him, right now we need to focus on getting out of this damned ship. Alright?"

The Marine looked horrified by the situation. He thought he was going home. He was going to retire from what Six had heard. Now he would probably die on this "Ringworld."
He stared into Kat's eyes. The eyes of a solider, who fought in battle, suffered wounds and trauma, who was emotionally disconnected from the world around him.
Those same eyes she saw as her grandma died. He reminded her of herself.
She felt pity, even after wearing the armor. "Come on, we need to get out of here." Kat ordered. She was a higher rank than Six, even though he was hyper lethal, she had more experience in strategy.

That gave her second in command of Noble team. Six was 2nd in charge, Emile was still trapped on Reach, and the rest of the team was dead.
Six backed her up when she had ordered the solider and his men to get up. "Come on, listen to the lady. Or you're not going home."
She nodded her head in appreciation.

The 7 Marines followed the two Spartans, who were navigating the Ship with ease.
Suddenly, they heard screaming. It wasn't human though, it was Grunts, running for their lives. They were terrified, although the Squad gunned them down without hesitation.
Then they saw a flashlight from the darkness of the corridors. The ship's engine had temporarily shut down, due to the Covenant's raid on the ship. Keyes was manually driving the ship on to the ring.

A Spartan stepped out of the shadows. It was the Chief; he had taken care of the remaining enemies in their way...
"Follow me."
A couple more minutes passed by while they searched for Pods. They had arrived. But there were none. They would have to search in a separate room. "Cortana, find us an escape pod."
Chief said aloud. Cortana could only talk through Chief's armor, and private channels. No one else on the outside could currently hear her.
"Got it. There's some a few rooms down."

Kat was scavenging the area and spotted an armor attachment. A hologram. That would be pretty useful down the line. It was also her favorite. Being able to distract enemies and easily stab them to death might save her life, or someone else's. The Marines followed behind; they had finally located an escape pod. The rest of the Ship was going down.
"Get in!" Chief ordered the frightened Marines. Chief's pod was full.

"Damn it. Six, follow me, we need to find a different one."

"Let's hope Chief doesn't squash 'em in there, wouldn't be surprised." Kat looked over in concern. He had never failed to surprise her.
Suddenly, a door blew open. The Covenant loved doing that today. A few Grunts and Jackals came rushing through. Six threw a Grenade into the crowd of enemies, grabbed a Jackal by its neck to protect him, and threw it at the remaining Grunts, who weren't killed by the Grenade's explosion.
"Holy shit Six." Kat exclaimed.

The enemies all died within milliseconds. Six was impressive. Kat remembered that kind of succession in training camp.
"B312" was a Recruit to be feared. He would tackle anyone he saw in sparring, and won easily. He was also precise with his shots, only ever missing a couple times with the Dmr. Although he did all of that while wearing a helmet he made from scratch. It looked pretty badass.

"See, here's a Pod. Told ya I'd find one." Kat said. "Yeah whatever." Six replied. Several Marines were hiding in it. This was the last one.
"Hey! in here!" Chips shouted. "Didn't see you go with Chief, so I kept this one for you two." "Thanks." Kat and Six hopped in the Escape pod and shut the doors.
They ejected into space instantly.
Chips, kat and Six all saw the Autumn as it slowly descended towards the ringworld. The Covenant's cruiser aimed steady fire on it, it was flaming in agony as it was crashing.

"Keyes is piloting it manually?! What the hell?" Chips exclaimed. Seeing the Autumn in flames, along with Keyes piloting it looked chaotic.
"There's still Marines on board! What is he thinking?!" "He has no choice; he's going down with the Ship." The Autumn's lower facing engine had exploded, killing several Banshees in its way.
"Hold on!" Kat yelled, knowing they were about to crash onto the surface. Seconds passed as they crashed.

As they entered the Ring's atmosphere, their pod was burning, but only for a little bit. This ring was around 4/5 of the Size of Earth. The fall was much quicker.
Six steered the Pod into a lake, so that they wouldn't get killed upon impact. This kind of Pod was meant to eject into Space, nothing more. Just like how the Autumn was meant to travel, and unload supplies, but also fight if it needed to.
PHSLAHLOUH! The three of them crashed in the water. Their pod sank down into the enormous lake, and then floated back up.
Their Pod was equipped with a lifeboat, and rationings to help them survive if they were stranded. Automatically, the Pod's door ejected, flying out 50+ feet.
The three of them hopped onto their lifeboat, and headed for land.

Chapter done! Sorry It took so long, I don't normally right stories. In the Next chapter, Six and Kat are going to help chief on the mission "Silent cartographer" and help set up a base of operations for the Unsc.
Also, Emile is going to attempt Escaping Reach. So, we'll see how that goes lol.
Also, I plan on making 4 Chapter for Combat evolved in total, so overall, for all of this story, there'll be 4 for Ce, 6 for Halo 3, and 2 or more for the Banished section of the story. Stay tuned!
(Side note, Linda will kind of help Kat, Six and Emile in my version of Halo 2.)