Chapter 2 - It isn't fair, I know that.

Silence was all that followed, they looked at me with utter disbelief.

"Cortana, I don't know what to say about this, but if it's true, then that's bad news, we need to stop the covenant from releasing the flood, and stop them from controlling the ring, I overheard them earlier talking about whoever controls the ring controls the universe. In this case we know what the ring is for, and must be stopped at all costs ." says Cpt Keyes as he picks up a needler.

Everyone else starts to pick up weapons, needless to say, the rest of the Marines either look at me like I'm mad, or are shocked that something like this would happen, I'm not sure to be honest.

Master Chief looks at me, while Cortana talks to the Captain, "if what corporal said is true, then we need to find the location to where the flood is contained, and stop them from activating the ring, Corporal Petrov is there any other information you can tell us like locations?

I get up, looking around, I head to grab a needler and a plasma pistol while answering her, "not exactly ma'am, but an Island we should be heading to soon, should have a map, and entrance directly to where the command center of the ring would be. The covenant called it the silent cartographer, and heavily defended it. for the rest I'm not sure yet, I do know that the location the flood is first seen by us, is in a forest enclave though, but I can't remember the name at the moment. The covenant panic, reseal a section, and our troops head in there to open it. Sadly everyone there dies besides the Captain, and Sarge."

Captain Keyes looks at me for a moment, before heading to the door, I look for a medpac, and grenades as they talk, "Cortana, before we continue this discussion, we need to get off this ship, wheres our ride?". As soon as those words come out, the door opens and two glowing lights are there. Everyone starts shooting, as the invisible elites shoot back with their plasma rifles. Master Chief kills one of them with his sniper rifle as the rest of us focus our weapons on the other elite, while the guy next to me grunts in pain from getting hit.

We take his shield down, and kill him, the pain in my chest starts throbbing as I use the medpac. I open it, and take the injector, I feel it going into my veins, and feel much better. The master chief walks into the hallway as he kills the jackals, we follow behind him as he takes point.

The master chief kills grunt after grunt, I pick up another needler as I'm not restricted like in the game. when we come across an elite, we take down his shield with our plasma pistols. Master chief moves forward quickly, smashing his fist into the elites head, and kills him.

He makes quick pace to the bridge, we're jogging at this point, while we try to keep up with him. The guy next to me took a stray plasma from one of the grunts, I could feel the heat from his arm, as well as the smell of burnt flesh. Worse yet, he's crippled now, as it hangs there, I feel nauseated. All of this happening so quickly, it's amazing how a spartan can do so much, while were just cannon fodder.

There's a few more injectors in the medpac, unlike the game, there's obviously more for everyone. I give one to him, hopefully it will lessen the pain. He looks at me, "thanks, don't know how much longer I'll last, but it helps." When he said that, I didn't know what to say.

Regardless, we head into the room as Cortana talked with Foehammer, just like in the game the conversation is the same, chief kills the elites while we are basically children in the fight. I charge up my plasma pistol, and take down one of the elites shield, while master chief quickly kills him. When we get to the door right before entering the hangar, I get a bad feeling. The door opens, and the covenant throw plasma grenades, seeing that I somehow manage to jump out of the way, but the guy next to me, doesn't bother. He runs into most of the grenades, running towards the covenant as they panic. They finish him off, but he's too close and the grenades kill most of them.

Everyone's silent, we quickly kill those in our way as I collect more grenades, we go down a level to get to the covenant drop ship, the Captain kills the hunters with the ship, and we leave. The guys are silent, Master chief is on the other side of the drop ship, it's just me and the rest of the Marines.

They look at me, some glare at me, but there's nothing I can do. I sigh out loud, as they look up I can't help but say, "I know it isn't fair, and even if you don't believe me, I am still gonna say, I know it isn't fair."

Silence continues, we are flying, but no one asked me anything, some of the guys sit down, and go to sleep. I'm tired too, I'm on halo now, and the first ring at that. I'm tired, I feel drowsy, and nod off.

if I was awake, I would have seen some of them crying, the thought of no one getting out alive, none of us, it broke them. When we escaped reach, many of them had family there, but now is the end of the road.

Cpt. Keyes was silent as he flew the drop ship to the nearest outpost, eventually he asked, "Cortana, have you looked into what corporal spoke about?". Silence followed for a while before she responded, "I've hacked into their chatter a while back, they found a building in a forest, as well as the island where the map should be. So far corporals statement runs true as far as locations, if so then we need everyone to prepare, I've taken the liberty in passing out directives when confronting the flood, but more data is needed before we can make a decision in how to handle them effectively"

Cpt. Keyes looks at the night sky on the drop ships hologram as he spoke, "Cortana, if what he said is true, you know what must be done, pass out orders to send troops to the pillar of autumn."