We touched down on one of High Charity's Phantom landing platform and jumped out of our dropship. The scene in front of us was horrifying. Flood were surrounding a crashed human drop ship. A few Grunts came through a door and were immediately attacked by Flood Infection Forms. An Elite surveyed the situation as he began to speak. 'We must stop the Dem—,' he glanced at me, 'um, "Greeny" from boarding the Forerunner ship.'

I looked across to the centre of High Charity, were the enormous ship sat under an opening in the ceiling. Around the ship, the huge city lay like a—POP! Green fluid splattered across my head. I turned to see the Zealot, who had just popped an Infection Form that had jumped at me. I thanked him and wiped the green liquid off my face.

After killing the rest of the Flood in the area, our group went through the door that the Grunt came out of before. We followed dead bodies to find Greeny. The stench was awful, even though I wore my mask. The thought of my mask made me remember when I was a kid, not wearing a mask or armour, playing in the methane atmosphere. I miss home. I didn't even want to be in the armour. I'm supposed to work. Do jobs for Elites and stuff.

Anyway, where was I?

Big blobs of infecty stuff (Note: Infecty is not a word) were stuck on the walls and floor, and faint green spores filled the air. As we walked through an intersection of some hallways, something leapt across and knocked the Zealot into another hallway. We ran to help, thinking it was the Flood, but it was actually a scared Elite. He was covered in cuts and bruises, his armour had cracks and holes and one of his jaws was missing.

'What are you doing?' snarled the Zealot.

'Quiet!' whispered the stranger. 'You must not alert the parasite. We have to leave High Charity. I lost my weapon long ago and I couldn't get out of that hallway in fear of the Flood noticing me. They are far stronger and more agile than Elites; I knew I didn't stand a chance out there. But now you are here. Your team is healthy and armed. Please, I beg of you, will you take me to a Phantom?'

The Zealot hesitated, and then said, 'We must stop the Demon from boarding the Forerunner ship. We have no time for you. We don't even know your name.'

'My name is Sruutamee. Even with weapons, you probably won't ever exit that hallway if you continue. I know. There were five other members of my squad, but now they are…gone.'

A horrible roar echoed through the halls, followed by silence for what seemed like hours.

'Alright, we will take a Phantom and you will come with us,' said the Zealot. 'But, Sruutamee, you owe us a lot.'

Part happiness, part amazement, part shock. He said, 'Thankyou. Thankyou so very much. I am forever in debt.'

We quietly walked back down the hall to the Phantom landing platform. There was one battered Phantom, but it had to do. The Zealot jumped into the pilot seat and Torbei, Rinyo and I sat down the centre of the ship, in the Grunt seating area. Sruut leaned against a wall, looking very tired. I'm calling him Sruut instead of Sruutamee because I can't be screwed typing Sruutamee. I soon fell asleep for a while. I woke up about an hour later. We still weren't at Halo, I guess because the Phantom's engines were damaged. Sruut was pacing up and down the ship and Torbei and Rinyo were still asleep.

Suddenly the Phantom shook and grew hot inside. Torbei and Rinyo woke up and Torbei said, 'What was that?'

'Don't be afraid,' said the Zealot, 'we are just passing through Halo's atmosphere.'

We all sighed in relief, then I fell asleep again after a few minutes. I was woken up by the ship shaking violently again.

'There's two atmospheres?' I said to the Zealot.

'No,' he replied grimly, 'that was a Wraith shot.'

My heart skipped a beat. Another explosion made the Phantom shudder. Then another. Plasma gas began leaking from the wall. Then a huge white-blue flash ripped the wall open, and I watched chunks of metal fly out the hole. Wind blew around the inside of the Phantom. Outside, about half a kilometre below us on a beach, two Wraiths fired at us. Looming over the Wraiths was an immense, bug-like tank. A Scarab. One damaged Banshee fired at the Wraiths, destroyed one and flew across to the…Control Tower!

'That's the Arbiter!' I yelled.

'Where's the Arbiter?' said Torbei, getting as close as he could to the gaping hole in the wall.

No of us were aware of the flaming blue plasma mortar heading for us. It scored a direct hit into the main propulsion fan of our ship. The Phantom dropped. It just dropped out of the sky. It rattled, smoke shoot out the bottom. Torbei, Rinyo and I huddled together. Sruut grabbed the wall opposite to the hole. The Zealot did the same. Rinyo whispered, 'This is it.'