I remember when I first got here. everyone was setting something up.  Whether it was a medical tent, armory, or sensors, every single person I saw was shouting and setting up stands to help work on there building.  God it was chaotic, couldn’t get anyone to talk to me.  I went to the back and found the HQ.  I walked inside to find something I could do when I heard someone yell “hey you. Yea you there, get over here!”  I walked over and told him I was a scientist, he said to make some sort of acid grenade to help against the zombies.

Did it work?

Did what work?

The acid grenades

No.

Why not?

It was way to unstable, eventually the acid burned the tent down

Why not make flasks?

What?

Flasks to hold the acid in

I didn’t think of that, no one did. 

Did you help build this wall?

No, I did make traps though.  I also made an auto-gun that could be turned on and off that shot at anything that moved.  God, everyone treated me like was a king after that.  The next thing I did was direct people to make buildings for snipers.

Why did you do that?

 Isn’t that obvious?  So that our snipers could kill the zombies.

I meant why you

Because I could put defenses into it.  I made a ladder that you had to climb to get in.  There were walkways from building to building and only the one building you can get up in.  The zombies would never be able to get us. After 1 month Zack came after us.

Who’s Zack?

 The zombies.  Anyways, our snipers took them out easy, but before we new that there mere millions coming after us.  We were dealing with most of America, at least that’s what it seemed like.  We were lucky we were so high.  Machine guns rocked on these guys.  There was no such thing as a miss!  But then we realized that they were somehow getting through the wall and getting to whoever was still on the ground.  We had to pull the ladder up so the zombies wouldn’t climb up it.

That must have been terrifying

Very, this interview was great but I have some work to do, talk to ya latter.

bilbo, and more.

After I recovered from the blow of the Gravemind being destroyed I “looked” around and found my self in the middle of a forerunner building.  I start scrambling towards one end of the hall that I was in.  After awhile of walking I hear a strange sound and I get lifted high into the air!  I land and find that I am on an upper level.  I keep on walking and I almost walk right off of the edge.  I scramble back, then climb down nice and gently.

About a day later I got to the ground and found that it was made of hard, very hard, sand.  I keep walking and walking.  I suddenly find that the ground isn’t sandy any more, but grassy.  I keep walking over these hills, at the top of the hill it is grassy, but at the bottom it is sandy.  Now I am clambering and running to get out of this dang gorge.

I climb up the side of the cliff wall, and find my self at the entrance of a flood colony.

I walk inside and sense that something is wrong. There seemed to be no life.  I slowly go down the passage and find that it was abandoned, or, more accurately, dormant.  I quickly run for outside when a booming voice yells, “Who dares leave my colony!” I get out right before the tunnel closes.

I keep on walking when I come up on an alone Elite that is making a fire.  He sits back on a log and I leap and hit him, right on target this time.  I transform into a combat form and run off with my plasma rifle.  Finally!!! I have gained a host!!!

I run and leap and find a starship.  I walk in and get abducted by 20 humans.  They fly me away to some icy planet and do experiments on me. Then I break out.  They all scramble away from me like I am some sort of horrid parasite, which, of course, I am.  I ran and bounded away from that ship and found another forerunner building.  I jump up the tiers to find, just as I got there, a Spartan running through a giant door with an Elite and a human. 

I use my plasma rifle to fell some sentinels and jump up on to a ledge.  I run along this snowy ledge shooting sentinels out of the sky all of the way, I run through a door in the side of the cliff and realize the there is another Gravemind!  There are other flood combat forms that are ready to stop any that try to escape.

I run and find another starship. I walk cautiously into it and turn everything on.  I try to fly it but it is really hard to control.  The Spartan comes back and jumps into a warthog; he must have killed the other combat forms.  He drives off with the Elite.  I try to chase them but it is hard to follow them in the spaceship.  Eventually, I find a giant spaceship, and see the Spartan and the Elite jump the warthog into the spaceship.  I try to crash land in the bay but missed and am now dead.

           ODST Captain Jeffery Hommes surveyed the campsite. Soon after landing, the soldiers had unpacked their shields and discarded them. There had been a clear spot without the wheat-like-plants that filled the prairie, so they set up camp there. as far as supplies went, they had three decent-sized tents, plenty of food rations, Medkits, some flares, a bunch of computer equipment, a non-regulation wooden desk, a long-range radio, (so they could call for evacuation after completing the mission) a pistol and assault rifle for each man, plenty of ammo, and most importantly for the success of their mission, lots and lots of explosives.

            The discarded shields were put in a ring around the camp. A scanty protection from flood or sentinels, but hopefully the former would make so much noise moving them that everyone would be awoken.

The Halo had passed behind the gas planet it orbited relative to the sun, so a strange equivalent of night had fallen. The three tents were erected, the equipment safely packed away, and someone was passing out food. Jeffery was about to join them when he heard someone shout, followed by a shot from a pistol. Someone else bellowed angrily.

            Jeff turned around, already drawing his own magnum as he ran to the perimeter. A figure was approaching, and the private who was on first watch had a gun pointed at it. Jeffery turned on his flashlight, and the figure was revealed to be a tall, white-armored, EVA-helmeted Spartan.

            He turned to the private. “Son, don’t shoot him. It’s a waste of valuable bullets.”

            The younger man trembled slightly at the sight of the armored figure. “Um… sorry, sir. I thought you were flood.”

            The Spartan just nodded once in his direction. “Very wise. Keep on guard. Don’t trust anyone until you’re absolutely sure they’re safe.” He reached the barrier of shields. “Now, would you mind helping me move these?” he had an Earth American accent, with a touch of New Australian thrown in.

            “You’re a Spartan. Jump.” Jeffery grunted, holstering his gun and turning back to the camp and his ration of peanuts.

*                      *                      *

            The Spartan shrugged, not wanting to start a fight before the mission really began.

            Once the captain was gone, he easily lifted a heavy shield like it was as light as a feather, moved through the gap, and gently set the shield back down. “Keep doing a good job, and stay paranoid.” He told the wide-eyed private before following the captain.

            One of the tents had somehow become the temporary HQ, so after snagging a bag of peanuts too, (causing more wide eyes among the other soldiers) the Spartan headed there. It was rather big, the size of a pair of warthogs put side-by-side, and ten feet tall. It was a golden color to blend into the stalks of wheat-like-plants from a distance. Inside, an artificial light hung from the ceiling and illuminated the scene. A non-regulation wooden desk had been set up near the back, which the captain now stood behind. Some radio equipment sat in the corner and was operated by a private, and a third ODST was locked in silent conversation with the captain.

Since no one seemed to notice him yet, the Spartan sat down in a corner and took off his helmet in order to eat his peanuts. He popped one in his mouth and grimaced. Too salty.

He had extremely pale skin, a result of wearing the armor most of the time, and his hair hadn’t been cut in at least a year and a half, leaving him with a scraggly mess that frizzed everywhere. He had mud brown eyes that took some time getting used to the uneven light after the polarized vision of the visor. He had some freckles on his nose, which was broken in one place and had never healed properly. There was a scar on his chin where someone had tried to cut his throat and missed by a few inches. That person had only had a few more seconds to regret it.

But that incident was about the only real-life combat he had experienced. By Spartan standards, he was a mere beginner. Heck, by normal military standards, he wasn’t terribly experienced. He began to sink once more into a melancholy state when a voice brought him back to reality.

The ODST who had been talking to the captain now stood over him. “We’re going to start figuring out where to go next.”

“Ah.” The Spartan stood up and joined them at the non-regulation wooden desk. The man who had been operating the radio had packed up and left the tent, so it was now just the three of them. There was a quick awkward silence, then the apparent second-in-command spoke. “I’m Lieutenant Phil Norris. This is Captain Jeffery Hommes, and he’ll be heading this mission. You are who?”

“Spartan Henry 586, sir.” Henry decided to leave out the fact that he outranked the Captain; again, he didn’t want to start any fights.

         Jeff butted in, already angry. “You mean Spartan Commander Henry 536.”

         “586, sir, and yes.”

         “What were you thinking? Play along, and then pull the rug out from under my feet at a crucial time?”

         “No, sir. I simply didn’t want to start any troub-”

         Jeff interrupted again, but quickly broke off into mumbling. “A Spartan. Commander. What were they… doesn’t deserve it…”

         Henry had to agree with that last one; he didn’t deserve such a high rank. But before he could once more begin to wallow in self-pity, Phil shrugged and tried to make peace. “Hey, guys. We’re stuck here, potentially surrounded by enemies, with low supplies, and this isn’t helping. Let’s just try to get along right now, okay?”

         Henry nodded, and after a few tense moments, so did Jeffery. “Well,” he said, “now that’s decided, let’s get down to business.”

         He pulled a holo-projector out of one of his pockets and set it on the desk. Immediately, a three-dimensional map of the ringworld appeared. “The ONI spooks who set this up planned everything out in advance,” he explained, not without a patronizing tone, “so I’m just telling you what they told me. They probably told you already, but I just want to make sure.”

         He tapped a section of the ring, and the map suddenly zoomed in on that part. Now they could see the plains with a red dot in the middle, signifying the position of their camp. “There’s where we are” he said unnecessarily. Then he slid his finger along the side, and suddenly the view shifted over to the mountains. He tapped a particular peak, and it enlarged. On one side was normal mountain, but the other side was a flat face, with a zigzagging path leading to a door at the top.

         “This mountain apparently matches the outside appearance of the control room on oh-four, so we assume this is the one for this place,” he continued, “It’ll be a few day’s drive, but nothing we haven’t handled before… right, spartan?”

         “With all due respect, sir,” butted in Phil, “why didn’t we just fly into the mountains?”

         Jeffery frowned at him and zoomed out so the entire mountain range was visible. “I asked the same thing. Apparently, the ONI spooks think it’s ‘too dangerous.’ I think that’s crap, but they don’t care… Anyway, more pelicans will arrive tomorrow and drop off a bunch of warthogs. We drive to the control room, capture the monitor, set the explosives, and get the hell out of here… you got that?”

         Henry nodded as Jeff zoomed in on another section of the map. In the foothills leading up to the mountains, there was a hole in the ring.

         Henry did a double take at that. “Is that…?”

         Phil shook his head. “No. If it was, we’d all be dead. Well, everyone except you… Anyway, something was messing with the radio and sonar, and it had heavy cloud cover, so satellite images wouldn’t work, either. In fact, since it was on the way, ONI asked us to stop there and check it out.”

         “Ah.” Henry said.

*                 *                 *

         A short while later, Jeffery, Phil, and the spartan (once more wearing his helmet) walked out of the main tent. Jeff walked to the center and addressed all the other ODST’s who were eating their peanuts. “All right, men! you know what we’re doing and how. tomorrow, the warthogs arrive, and we get to go for a drive. But you better settle in, because until then, it looks like we’re camping.”