WARNING: Does contain some horror elements and brutality. Will contain torture and some gore that included organs, brains, and Flood biomatter. Still T rated though!

"The fact that you can smile after all that crap that you've been through shows how strong you are"

Sonya Parker

"Watch your back, Chief!" I shouted urgently, watching my Spartan finish off an Infected Unggoy and turn to face the Major Sangheili that rushed him.

He lifted his forearm just in time, the Infected Sangheili stopped just inches from Chief's throat, held back by his arm. It snarled viciously, insanity radiating from it. It was barely recognizable with its grey limbs and feathered antenna. Chief punched it hard in its unprotected stomach, his fist breaking the grey flesh and causing slime mixed with yellow dust to splatter across his golden visor. The Sangheili didn't seem bothered and pushed Chief farther down, its weight all crashing down on Chief's forearm plate. Chief grunted, fumbling for his small plasma pistol, the only thing he could scavenge off of the corpses. I tried to make myself useful, scanning it for any weak spots. Chief kicked it hard in the shins, causing it to stumble for the briefest moment. That moment was all Chief needed. He fired his small pistol into its head, the supercharged, hot plasma burning straight through bone and flesh, leaving a ragged hole in its brain. It collapsed in a massive heap on the floor, some parts of it disintegrating.

I sighed, relieved, and scanned my Spartan. He was tired, but relatively unharmed, just the burn he had gotten from the Sentinel in the Control Center. I furrowed my brow, watching as Chief headed towards the generator. If we removed this last one, the Halo's primary firing mechanisms would fail, forcing the Forerunner AI, Guilty Spark, to fix them. It was a simple, yet brilliant plan, giving us time to locate the Autumn and Keyes and to destroy the Halo.

A proud smile tugged the corners of my mouth.

"Please tell me that's the last one," Chief breathed, giving one last, powerful kick to the generator. He tossed a grenade in there just to be certain and watched as the intricate Forerunner machine burst into flames.

"Yes," I assured him slowly, "now we need to find some transport." I checked my locator, seeing the Autumn's weak signal finally show up on my map. "Chief, I've located the Autumn. She put down twelve-hundred kilometers up to spin. Energy readings say her fusion reactors are still powered up." I checked the ship again, frowning deeply. "The systems on the Autumn have fail safes that even I can't override, without authorization from Keyes. We need to find his neural implants, to start the fusion core detonation in the Autumn to take out Halo."

Chief tossed his pistol away and grabbed a Covenant Carbine that lay near a fallen Sangheili. He fired a few warm up shots and attached it on his magnetic clip on his back. "Let's find a ride. Get to the Captain," he grunted, starting to march out of the massive generator chamber.

"Wait! No, that will take too long," I told him firmly.

He stopped. "You have a better idea?" he asked curiously.

"There's a teleportation grid that runs throughout Halo. That's how the Monitor—or Guilty Spark, whatever you call him—moves about so quickly. I learned how to tap into it when I was in the Control Center. Unfortunately, each jump requires an…," I paused sheepishly. "…consequential expenditure of energy."

Chief sighed wearily. "I have a feeling I'm not gonna like this."

I quickly spoke up to assure him. "But I'm pretty sure I can take the needed energy from your suit without permanently damaging your shields. Needless to say, I think we should try this only once," I added nervously.

"Pretty sure?" Chief asked skeptically.

"Well, if I get the dimension jump coding correctly without any serious fallacies—"

"Do it," Chief ordered, interrupting me. I nodded and quickly set to hacking the grid.

It was easy, it let me in and I scanned through hundreds of codes. I picked the closest one and felt as we disappeared. Gold flashed around us, blinding us for a moment. I was luckily able to access my tracking system. I saw a feeble life signal come through, It was Keyes! I smiled broadly. Then the grid dumped us out out onto the metal grating of a Covenant CCS-class battlecruiser.

"The Covenant battle net is a mess! The leadership ordered the fleet to abandon Halo once they found the Flood, but they were too late. The Flood overwhelmed this cruiser and and disabled it," I babbled on, not paying attention to anything around me but the comm. "The Covenant are terrified the Flood will repair and use this ship to escape Halo. They've sent in a strike team to eliminate the Flood on this ship and repair it for immediate departure." I took a breath. "I've for a good lock on Keyes CNI transponder signal! He's alive! And the implants are intact! There was some interference from the ship, but I managed to bring us as close as I could."

Chief was standing up from his wild tumble, slightly nursing a sore knee and a banged up helmet. He whacked his helmet with his fist, rattling me slightly. I tried not to laugh.

I had teleported Chief upside-down.

"Ohhh…I see, the coordinate data needs to be—"

"Your driving is terrible," he said bluntly, picking up his carbine.

"Right. Sorry," I apologized, not feeling too apologetic.

Chief continued down the darkened corridor, the only sound in the whole ship was his metal boots hitting the floor. The sound was harsh and loud in our ears, echoing down the shadowy hall. The deep purple walls sloped up, creating a tunnel effect as Chief continued forward. I was constantly checking Keyes's signal, watching it flicker on my HUD. It was nerve-wracking. The comm eerily crackled to life.

"Chief…don't be a fool…leave me," Keyes gasped weakly from the comm, his voice punctuated with static and interference.

The comm went dead.

"Captain? Captain?!" I called. "I've lost him," I whispered darkly.

The air around us was thick with smoke and dark as night. The metal ramps below creaked under Chief's boots; the ship groaning. It was quiet. The silence thick and almost stifling. I could hear Chief's breathing in the darkness, the creak of his armor as he moved and the scrape of his boots on the floor. I was on edge, constantly checking my scanner with a careful eye for any signs of life. As we went, I tried to pick Keyes's signal up. There was nothing, but I had a suspicion to where he would be.

We continued to wander down the empty halls, trying to find the bridge, where Keyes's signal had last been. A large, jagged hole in the bay floor, halted us just before the door that would take us to Keyes. I sighed, trying to find a new route. I swift analyzed the hole, my mood sinking.

"Analyzing damage. This hole was caused by an explosive. Very powerful if it tore through the ship's hull. All I detect down there are pools of coolant." I sighed again, pulling up an alternative route."Let's try this way, Chief."

He turned, obediently following the NAV point I had set up for him. That's when the Flood made a guest appearance. They poured down a small hole in the roof in front of us, their feathered antenna quivering.

"Warning! Threat level rising," I said urgently, watching as they swarmed towards us.

Chief plunged into the fray, spraying sheets of bullets into the swarm. They exploded in small puffs of yellow dust but more climbed over their fallen comrades.

"Thanks for the warning, Cortana," he huffed at me, kicking one of the parasites off of his boot.

I frowned. "Excuse me for trying to do my job!"

Chief grunted in response and ducked as a larger Flood flew towards him, its grotesque arms reaching for him. I knew Chief couldn't keep this up for long, his shield were already damaged and even though he was super human, he couldn't keep running on no sleep or food for long. The only way out was down the hole and into the coolant. Lovely.

"Jump down the hole! It's the only way!" I shouted, wincing as an Infected form slammed its fist into Chief's chest.

He paused for a moment, but threw himself into the gaping hole, the Flood left far behind.

We fell quickly, plunging into the pale blue pools of coolant far below. We sank, the world around us dim and watery. Chief hit the bottom and immediately stood, groping for his gun that floated serenely away from us. He snatched it and over slowly through the liquid, his boots sending up puffs of slit and dirt that clouded the water even more. He cautiously crept onto the bank, sinking into a low crouch. I checked the life scanner.

"The Covenant and Flood are heavily engaged all along the banks. It seems the Covenant sent some strike teams to try to take back the ship," I said quietly. Chief nodded and crept along the bank, his gun pointed at the battle that raged on the shore. I moved his NAV point to a gravity lift just up some cliffs above. "There," I directed. "The gravity lift should take us back into the ship. Its amazing anything is still working. Judging by the damage, the ship's reactor core has gone critical."

"How is Keyes still alive, then?" Chief grunted darkly, moving to the base of the cliff.

I bit my lip. "I don't honestly know."

He said nothing but started to scale the cliff, his hands reaching for string stones to support his one ton frame. His foot dug into the soft stone, scrabbling for any purchase on the rock; his breath came faster and his muscles strained harder to pull himself up. I looked nervously down the cliff and hoped Chief's strength would hold out.

He pulled himself up, panting slightly but recovering quickly. He sprinted to the gravity lift, relaxing as it lifted us gently up into the dark ship.

"The Covenant battle net is a mess!" I exclaimed, trying to sort out the mixed signals. "I can't access the ship's schematics, but my records indicate that the shuttle bay should be here…" I looked up from my work to see the cargo bay greet us. "Sort of. The shuttle bay is just beyond this room." I mentally scolded myself, embarrassed at my small inaccuracy. I looked at the room and saw dark piles in the corners. Arms and legs stuck out from the reeking piles, both human and alien.

"They're collecting bodies," I realized, a note of horror in my words.

"Which way, Cortana?" Chief asked, emotionless, stopping in the middle of the shuttle bay.

I snapped back to reality. "We should be able to reach the control room from the Third level. Take a left," I ordered briskly.

The comm came on again, its sound unnatural loud in the dead silence.

"I….gave you an order, soldier!" Keyes shrieked, his voice hard with pain. "Now pull out!"

"He's delirious!" I said darkly. "We have to find him now!"

Chief broke into a sprint, his legs moving quickly as they propelled us put the ramp and through a door marked with a solid black three. He burst through it, following the NAV point I had hurriedly thrown onto his HUD. He turned sharply to his left and stopped beside the door that lead to the bridge. He raised his gun and silently counted in his head. With a loud bang, he threw open the door, his gun sweeping the room.

I gasped at what I saw, the sound only audible to Chief.

Keyes was…absorbed into a pulsing, grey mass of growths that was attached to the ceiling and wall. His whole lower body had almost completely become one with the Flood parasite, but his face was still there. It was fixed in a horrible, silent scream, his eyes mad and ringed with red.

Even Chief slowed, his gun lowering. I just stared, horrified.

"Chief," I croaked. "No human-life signs detected. The Captain…he's one of them." My voice was hardly louder than a whisper. "We have to get those implants. It's what he would want us to do."

He raised his gun again and stepped towards Keyes. He stood for just a moment in front of the solider and in one swift moment, his fist pouched through Keyes's skull, retreating with the neutral implants. Chief shook the grey flesh off of the implants and inserted them into his helmet. I received them quickly and found the codes we needed.

"It's done. Let's go find a ride back to the Autumn," I said as firmly as I could.

Chief tuned away from the mangled corpse and the Flood. Not once looking back. I did, though. I didn't know the man personally, but my creator Halsey did. She knew him very well. I wondered how she would take the news. She probably wouldn't care. All she loved and cared about was her work, about her program and her research. Sacrifice is necessary, she would say to me.

How many lives would need to be sacrificed before peace?

Gunfire interrupted my thoughts. I mentally scolded myself. I was drifting off too much. I was almost as bad as a rampant AI!

"Chief?" I said cautiously, checking his vitals. He was backing up, his eyes fixed on an escort Banshee that had brought in a new Covenant strike team. I sighed and steeled myself. "Don't miss," I huffed, watching as he broke into a dead sprint.

"I don't miss," he grunted before leaping from the platform of the shuttle bay.

The small human part of me held her breath as we floated through the air. I complete stopped all of my data input and calculations. It was almost like holding one's breath to an AI.

He landed roughly, whipping his knife out and stabbing it into the metal hull of the small craft. He swung neatly into it, shoving the Elite pilot out. He settled himself on his stomach, holding the yoke firmly. I released my breath, letting myself think again.

"I'm pulling up the route now. It's going to be a long fight. Sure you don't want to take a bathroom break?" I teased lightly, displaying the route on his HUD.

"Funny, Cortana. Very funny," he rumbled, pulling the acceleration stick.

Suddenly, red lights flashed and it grew slightly smoky inside.

"Chief, the left-wing is damaged!" I warned, scanning the craft.

"I am well aware of that, thank you, Cortana," he replied calmly.

I huffed angrily. How did he survive without me?

The gold sun was just rising over the smooth, artificial sea. A massive ship rested on the coast, smoke billowing up from its mangled body. A sandy beach stretched under our smoking Banshee. Our now critical, very damaged banshee. Never fly your damaged aircraft overnight. It's not the best idea if you want to have a safe, comfortable landing. Our small craft limped towards the ruined Pillar of Autumn, bouncing up and down sporadically.

The left-wing dipped sharply, veering us to the left.

"This thing is falling apart," I told Chief, slight panic rising in my voice as a chunk of metal fell off of the damaged wing.

Chief yanked on the wheel, pulling the nose of the craft up. "It'll hold," he said calmly, ignoring the warning lights that flashed in our face.

I moaned, watching as the wing burst into purple tinted flames. "We're not gonna make it!"

"We'll make it," Chief assured me stoically, fighting to pull up.

It plummeted, the sand rising up to greet us. "Pull up! Pull up!" I shrieked, closing my visual receivers.

Chief leapt from the Banshee, just as it crashed into the side of the ship. His hand managed to grip the edge of the Autumn's landing bay, his body dangling in empty air. I looked down to see a large, fiery explosion below. I winced. Chief pulled himself up slowly, his breath coming short and fast as he crouched on the life pod deck.

"You did that on purpose," I said sardonically, my lips pursed.

Chief didn't respond, but I knew he was fighting a smile. I sighed and scanned the Autumn.

"I'm pulling up the route to the bridge. Once we get there, we can use the Captain's implants to initiate an overload of the ship's fusion engines. The explosion should damage enough of the Halo's systems to destroy it," I said briskly, dropping a NAV point on Chief's HUD.

Chief nodded and started to run, past the fighting Flood and Covenant, his mind—our minds—set on one thing alone. We didn't know how we would get off once the engines were set to blow, and we didn't care.

We burst into the bridge, the door shutting behind us. It was dark, just a few flickering lights and an AI pedestal in the center of it. The observation windows were cracked and covered in sand. A small patch of blood stained the floor.

"We made it. Let's get to work. Plug me into the terminal," I said, emotionless, feeling Chief pull my gently from his AI port at the base of his helmet. He swift plugged me into the terminal, stepping away as my slender, female avatar appeared. I shake my head as I glance over the damage report. "I leave home for a few days, and look what happens," I joked lightly, pulling up the main screen. "This won't take long," I promised Chief, who stood stiffly behind me. I activated the neural implants and opened the self destruct sequence, starting the countdown. The numbers flashed across the holoscreen in bold red.

"There," I said, satisfied. "That should give us enough time to make it to a lifeboat and put some distance between us and Halo."

Chief moved forward to yank me, until an all-too-familiar voice echoing from the comm stopped him in his tracks.

"I'm afraid that's out of the question," 343 Guilty Spark said smugly from the speakers.

"Oh, hell," I groaned.

"Ridiculous," it continued. "That you would imbue a warship's AI with such a wealth of knowledge! weren't you worried it might be captured? Or destroyed?" It asked, its voice coldly teasing.

I opened my mouth to give a snarky reply, but I felt a sharp nudge deep within my data arrays. Something was tapping into them, and I knew exactly who was doing it.

"It—he is in my data arrays! It's a local tap," I informed Chief, annoyance edging in my voice.

I heard Spark gleefully humming over the comm, further annoying me.

"You can't imagine how exiting this is! To have a record of all our lost time!" A pause. "Human history is it? Fascinating."

I started to fantasize about chucking the little Forerunner AI into a black hole.

"Oh, how will I enjoy every moment of its categorization! And to think you would destroy this installation, as well as this record. I am shocked. Almost too shocked for words!" it said with mock sincerity. A loud tone echoed from the speakers, the countdown timer freezing.

"He stopped the sequence…" I huffed, a note of begrudging awe in my voice. Chief looked calmly around the bridge, his assault rife tucked smugly in his arm. He was completely unreadable under his armor.

"Why do you continue to fight this, Reclaimer?" it ranted. "You cannot win! Give us the construct, and I will endeavor to make your death relatively painless and—"

I had finally decided I was sick of monologues. I activated another tone, successfully muting the insane AI. I sighed, a frown evident on my avatar's face. "At least I still have control over the comm channels," I said glumly.

"Where is he?" Chief asked me abruptly, his voice dangerous.

I smiled. "I'm detecting taps throughout the ship, Sentinels most likely. As for the Monitor…" I paused, checking the scanner. "He's in Engineering. He must be trying to take the core offline! Even if I could get the countdown started…I don't know what to do," i said weakly, shrugging my arms in desperation. I hopelessly looked back at the flashing screens, my shoulders slumped.

"How much firepower would you need to crack one of the engine's shields?" Chief rumbled from behind me.

I furrowed my brow, my eyes fixed on the screens. "Not much. A well-placed grenade perhaps, but why—" I trailed off, turning to face Chief.

I saw Chief causally tossing a grenade up and down in his hand. I grinned.

"Ok, I'm coming with you," I said firmly, not able to wipe to the smile off of my face.

Chief reach to pull me, immediately recoiling as a blue bolt whizzed by his hand. A squad of Sentinels descended from the roof, blasting Chief with blue plasma fire. His shields wavered as he snatched me roughly from the terminal and dove behind cover. He inserted me into his helmet and began to return fire.

"Move, Chief!" I ordered urgently, watching as the last Forerunner machine fell to the ground. He obeyed and leapt up, sprinting down the hall, knocking down a Infected Unggoy in his haste. He stopped short as something invisible slammed us against the wall. Chief smacked the air in front of him, connecting with an Infected Stealth Sangheili. It snarled and fell back, but only for a moment. Chief ducked as its deformed claw smashed the wall where we had been not two moments before. Chief fired a round of bullets into its misshapen face, watching as mucus and powder exploded from the fatal wound. It collapsed at Chief's boots. He kicked it away and continued on, moving faster and faster.

We burst into Engineering, Chief slowing to a complete stop, his gun trained on Guilty Spark.

"The Monitor has disabled all command access! We cannot restart the countdown. We have to detonate the ship's fusion reactors. That should destroy the ring!" I shouted, not moving my gaze from the shivering Forerunner AI. "First, pull back those exhaust couplings," I directed Chief. "It will expose a shaft that leads to the primary fusion drive core." He followed my instruction and yanked them back, his gun still on Spark.

"Your behavior is not in accordance with established protocols!" It mumbled at Chief, bobbing up and down furiously. "Unacceptable, Reclaimer!" It shrieked as I continued to direct Chief.

"Open that manifold," I said briskly, my voice tight with stress. "Perfect," I said more lightly, as Chief did as I asked. "Now we have a straight shot to the reactor! Still have that grenade, Chief?"

He pulled the pin and tossed it into the darkness, watching as it tumbled down.

"Good! Fusion reactor number one is destabilizing. Now move on to the other three reactors. That should be enough to start a wildcat explosion of the engines," I said happily.

Chief related the same steps, the ship shuddering each time as the grenade found its mark. Alarms blared and outside both Flood and Covenant were locked in battle. It was chaos. The ship rocked as the last reactor was destabilized, red lights pulsing above.

"We did it!" I said as Chief jogged from the room, leaving the broken AI behind. "The engine's gone critical! Based on my readings, we have fifteen minutes to get off this ship before we get blown up; we don't have much time! Get outside and signal for evac. There's a service lift at the top of the engine room. It leads to a class-7 service corridor that runs along the ship's dorsal figure. Hurry!" I urged him, feeling the ship shake under Chief's feet.

"Have you noticed that you tend to grow more bossy the more stressful the situation?" Chief huffed, dodging a plasma grenade.

I opened my mouth indignantly, but a patrol of Covenant Spec Op Sangheilis descended upon Chief as the lift doors shut. Chief kicked one of the Op troops into the lift wall, slamming his elbow into another that nearly tackled him from behind. Chief twisted around and grabbed the disoriented troop's head, snapping its neck in one clean movement. The one he had kicked was up again, its four jawed mouth opened wide and hissing at us. Chief twisted to his left as its fist hit the wall. It wrapped a three-fingered hand around Chief's gun, snapping it in two. Chief huffed and tackled the Sanheili head on, hitting it repeatedly. Its purple blood smeared the walls of the small lift. He finally let it go, its corpse fallen on top of its fallen brothers. Chief scooped one of the fallen Covenant's guns up, shooting the last Sangheili before it had the chance to attack. It gasped and slumped against the wall, a perfectly shaped burn hole in its neck.

"Impressive," I said cooly. "I'll call for backup." I quickly opened the comm, taking a deep breath. "Cortana to Echo 419, come in Echo!"

"Roger," Foehammer said through the crackling interference. "I read you, five by five."

"The Pillar of Autumn's engines are going critical. Requesting immediate evac, Foehammer! Approach the crash site and be ready to pick us up at external access Junction 4C as soon as you get my signal!" I ordered, watching as Chief sorted through the fallen Sangheilis' guns.

"Affirmative. Echo 419 going on station," Foehammer said calmly, the comm shutting off.

It crackled back to life. "Echo 419 to Cortana. Things are gettin' noisy down there. Is everything all right?" Foehammer asked, concerned.

"Negative," I responded, the lift shaking violently. "We have a wildcat destabilization of the ship's fusion drive core. The engines must have sustained more damage then we'd thought!" I closed the comm, analyzing the decay rate. "We have five minutes, Chief!"

"Got it, Cortana," Chief said, leaping from the lift and entering the warthog station.

"When the engines detonate, the explosion will generate a temperature of one million degrees! Don't be here when it blows," I begged Chief as he swung neatly into a Warthog.

"Not planning on it," he replied, punching the gas. The Warthog's tires squealed against the metal floor, scrabbling for purchase and then jumping forward down the large corridor. It continued to drive faster and faster, completely squashing a group of tiny Flood Infection forms.

"Cortana to Echo 419! Requesting extraction now, on the double!" I shouted into the comm, watching as Chief slammed on the breaks, stopping on a wide platform; our extraction point.

We both saw the badly damaged Pelican limp into view, its starboard wing dipping dangerously. Two Banshees flanked it on either side, relentlessly pounding it with plasma fire. I hurriedly opened the comm to warn Foehammer, but the Pelican burst into flames, flying under our platform.

"I'm hit!" Foehammer screamed, the roaring of fire in the background. "Mayday, Mayday! Airfoil structures have been shot to pieces! I can't hold her! I can't!" Forehammer continued to yell into the comm, but no one could understand her.

"She's gone," I said with a heavy sigh. "Calculating alternate escape route." I pull up the ship's inventory, the gold light of the sun pouring in to the bay and glancing from Chief's visor. "There is a Longsword fighter still docked in Launch Bay 7. If we move now, we might just make it!" Chief just slammed the gas, taking off towards the NAV point I hurriedly dropped for him. We passed a lone Unggoy, just standing alone in the corridor.

"Ugh…Good thing that food nipple will be waiting for me at the starship, cause man; I worked up a big, grunty, thirst!" It exclaimed, just before Chief ran over it. I just shook my head at the grunt, trying not to laugh.

"Chief, gap ahead!" I shouted, my eyes widening as he flew off of the ramp and over the trench. The Hog's wheels spun uselessly, seeking for traction on the ground. We hit hard, the Warthog creaking and taking off again, the smell of burned tire in the air. I briefly wondered how it actually smelled. I could test the burned particles, or run a search on reports of what burned tire actually smelled like, but I could never test for myself. I sighed, that was the price to pay for knowledge.

A shrill alarm punctuated the still, dusty air, just as Chief stomped on the breaks, skidding to a stop in front of a GA-TL1 Strike Fighter. I unwisely checked my countdown, adrenaline spiking my data stream when I saw what little time we had left.

"Chief, hurry!" I said, my words tense.

He jumped from the Warthog and pulled himself into the cockpit of the sleek plane. Shutting the cockpit, he swiftly and smoothly started the engines, pulling gently back on the yoke. The plane snarled and leapt forward, the engines humming throughout the ship, it streaked from the bay, growing faster and faster.

"Here we go," he muttered, yanking the yoke back more roughly.

I didn't relax until I saw that we had cleared the atmosphere. Another loud beep snapped Chief from his piloting, the display read: ENGINE TEMP CRITICAL. He relaxed slightly, his gloves squeaking as he released the yoke.

"Shut them down, we'll need them later," I told Chief, glancing out at the debris that floated serenely by. The explosion had been swift and silent, the fascinating Forerunner Installation now is pieces across the stars. I felt intense relief and then sadness at the loss of such a wealth of information.

"Fancy a look?" I asked Chief, my gaze not moving.

Chief stood slowly, shutting the engines off as he rose. The ship floating through the endless darkness of space. He braced himself against the frame of the cockpit, the stars reflected in his visor.

"Did anyone else make it?" he said slowly, quietly.

I checked my scanner. "Scanning." I paused, taking in a quiet breath. "Just…dust and echoes. We're all that's left," I whispered.

Chief shook his head and returned to his seat, his hands squeezing and then relaxing, and repeating the little pattern. He pulled his knife from his forearm clip, examining it in the faint light of the monitors.

"We did what we had to do…" I began hesitantly. "For Earth. An entire Covenant armada obliterated, and the Flood…we had no choice. Halo," I said, watching as a chunk of silver metal hurtled by. "It's finished."

"No," Chief said roughly, his fingers unclasping the hooks that held his helmet in place. "I think we're just getting started." He placed it on the table, running his hand through his cropped hair.

I didn't reply, but in a secret, dark place inside of me, I knew he was right. And I would be ready.

Bring it.

*Collapses dramatically, wheezing over my computer* It…is…finished! Hahahahahahahah! Part one is finished! Whoohooo! I know this chapter was very long, but I just couldn't split it up. I hope I didn't suck too bad. I'll take any and all reviews. I am pretty much about to do my happy dance and then belt out "Let it Go." I am very pleased with myself and I am sorry I kept you guys waiting. You see, I wrote two drafts of this chapter and then chose my favorite. This one was far better. I am a little nervous about what you guys will think, but I'm ready, I will don my Mark VI armor of flames protection and then I'll be fine.

Ok, let me enlighten you guys on what's coming up.

This is part one to Dust and Echoes. I will begin part 2 immediately and I will pre write some chappies so I won't leave you guys hanging. After Halo 2, I will begin book 2: Sword and Shield (may rename) Now, I am daunted by Halo 2, as it wasn't the best out the the games and I do not want to get repetitive. If you have any ideas/advice/random quotes just PM me and I will reply as quick as I can. Then its Halo 3 time! Yeah, baby! I am going through its campaign again and I just fell in love with Halo all over again. It will always have a very special place in my geeky heart. And lastly, Halo 4, which is so heartbreakingly awesome. I cannot wait to get started! So, I'm done now. Feel free (and encouraged) to review. I love those little words of encouragement:)

SHOUT OUTS TO ALL OF THE WONDERFUL, CONSTANT PEOPLE WHO TOOK TIME TO REVIEW THIS STORY.

CJ-T-Bone: Thanks for consistently reviewing and reading, it means the world to me and I hope I did Halo some justice. You are fabulous and I hope to see one of your reviews on Part 2! :D

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thelexy: Gracias my amiga! Your reviews are fantastic and I feel better after I read them. You perk up my day and help me feel not so bad about my meager writing abilities. Thank you so much again! See you (hopefully) in part 2! :D

Cor Tenebrae: Every time you put in a review, I get this dopy grin on my face. It is really fabulous that a awesome writer like you reads my not so great story and likes it. Your advice and kindly given critique has helped me a lot and I hope that I have improved. I have tried to do my best with this chapter, and I wish you enjoy this one! Thank you for being so kind and always reviewing. It means so much to me. I will see you in part 2!

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Dividing MDH: Is the rating still an egg? Thanks for the more critical review. I needed it and its helped me put a little sparkle on this story. I will always check for any reviews from you; I cannot wait to see your opinion on my fic! Thanks again and I wish to see you in part 2!

max: No, thank you! Thank you so much for reading and for the input, it made me smile (again. I just love them reviews!) I hope (I have said that waaay too much) that you liked this chapter! You are fantastic:)

medicaldolphin8: Well, it wasn't all Cortana's thoughts, but it's almost impossible in some parts. I will try to put all little Chief POV as often, after all, this is Cortana's side, not his! But thanks for the review and I hope you liked this chapter:)

The Fezatron: Dude, you are fantastic. You have reviewed (I think) every single chapter! That. Is. Awesome. You never ceased to put a big grin on my face or to boost my morale. Keep on reviewing and keep on writing!

Gamov: Thank you! I hope the story was interesting enough! Thanks for reviewing and for reading. I hope to see another review again!

thetoastthatgotbuttered: Thanks for the little tidbits of awesome you faithfully post after every chapter. It helps a bunch! I'll see you in part 2, and, good luck with your story:)

And to the other wonderful, fabulous people who reviewed!

I have run out of words to say my immense thanks to all of you, I am just so…exhilarated about the turnout of this story. But without you guys, no matter how big the review, this story would have probably been deleted months ago. Its YOU reviewers who keep me going and help me write better. Thanks to you guys, I will probably start to submit essays to contests and will try to crack my shell of insecurity. I have no word to say how thankful I am to you guys, and I can only hope that this story will bring you as much pleasure as your reviews did!:)

Stay fabulous!