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The Shadows - Part 1: The Unknowns
Date: 4 September 2002, 5:01 am

Several years after the Spartans received their radical body alterations, the Navy Intelligence began to work on a new type of soldier raised from their early days. These new soldiers were trained for strictly covert operations, and nothing but them. The chemicals used to enhance the Spartans were altered, and were used on these new soldiers. The new chemicals focused mainly on senses: Enhancing their hearing, sight, touch, and smell. They were also enhanced in speed and agility. These enhancements were far better than the Spartan's, but only because the Spartans were enhanced in a more well-rounded way. But these enhancements enabled these new soldiers to sneak aboard enemy ships and exit without the enemy even knowing. They are the number 1 resource for the Navy Intelligence. But their knowing was strictly classified: Only the ones at the top of the Navy Intelligence even knew of their existence, excluding their trainers and such (who were strictly on a Need-to-Know basis) . Nobody knows of their existence, but they do very well exist. But to those who know them, they are known by nothing other than the Shadows.

These Shadows were taken from their childhood at the early age of 4. The chemicals were placed in them at a very early age so that the body enhancements would also grow stronger as they grew older. The program started with about 100 children, but by the age of ten only 20 were still in the condition required for the purpose of the Shadows. These children were also identified with a first name and number, like the Spartans. Among the last 20 were five that stood out the most: Castor-88, Josh-23, Mike-53, Willie-32, and Cameron-78. Each were strong in certain areas: Cameron could pilot/drive any vehicle you gave him, Willie was probably the fastest son of a gun alive, Mike had extremely excellent shot with pistols and sniper rifles, Josh was just plain out crazy (in a courageous, controlled manner) with anything he could get his hands on, and Castor was probably the best at sneaking around. The 20 Shadows were split into four different squads of five, and luckily these five recruits were in the same squad. At the age of 15, these top five recruits were assigned their first task: To assassinate a rebel leader known as General Harold Givens, who was revealed by Colonel Robert Watts.

The General's ship was located within the asteroid belt that Colonel Watts was captured. The Shadows took a stealth transport in and connected to the ship's hull. After applying the equipment needed to board the ship (jet packs and a breathing system) they glided along the ship's hull until they found a vent for the ship's waste. They made their way through the vent and came up inside the ship's facility for the waste. Before revealing themselves, they hacked in and set the room's camera to replay a smooth video previously recorded. They all changed their attire (into the type of stealth suits that made them look like ninja) and headed out. The five Shadows silently moved through the vent system until they located the General's quarters. The General was sleeping, with guards outside his bedroom. The Shadows used a silent laser and slipped off the vent cover in his room. Castor dropped into the room without making a sound, while the others watched the guards from a vent opening directly above the bedroom door outside the room. Making sure to stay out of the camera's view, Castor pulled out his knife, and prepared to make the kill quickly.

From the vent, the four saw about ten guards walking into the main suite with another high ranking officer...it looked like another Colonel. Cameron quickly set the cameras in the whole suite to replay footage, making it seem like nothing was happening. Josh smiled and said, "I think a General and a Colonel would be much better." "I'm with you," replied Cameron. Mike whispered down to Castor the situation, and Castor slipped under the General's bed.

The guards and the Colonel entered the bedroom, closing the door behind them. With the door closed, the four other Shadows dropped into the living room outside the bedroom. They readied their weapons and laid out their plan...from inside the room the Colonel woke the General and spoke to him about business and such. Suddenly the doors swung open. The guards pulled their weapons and looked, but nobody was there. One guard was sent to check it out, and as he stepped through the door...he was hooked by a rope and pulled off his feet. Josh had hooked him from the vent and tied the rope to one of the supports within the vent. The guard hung their, dying. Two more guards ran forward, and as they stepped through the door they were met by two hits to the heads from butt-ends of two assault rifles. The seven other guards charged the door, just as Josh swung down from the vent. Josh collides with the group of guards, knocking them all of their feet and tumbling to the ground. The three other Shadows hurried in and began eliminating the fallen guards with their silenced weapons. The Colonel (standing next to the bed) pulled his pistol, but before he could shoot his feet were pulled out from underneath him. He hit the ground hard, and he looked under the bed...seeing the one who pulled him down. As he aimed his gun again at Castor, Josh came over and kicked the gun from his hands. Josh pulled the Colonel up and began giving him repeated punches across the face. The Colonel struck Josh back once, but it was his last. Josh pulled two knives and began slicing at the Colonel's arms and legs, allowing him to suffer. As the Colonel fell to his knees, he took one more slice and slit his throat. Castor rolled out from under the bed and stood. The General still lay in his bed, scared to death.

The General asked, "Are you with UNSC?" Castor approached his bed, raised his silenced pistol to the General's head, and simply replied, "We are unknowns." He took a single shot, killing the General on the spot...

The team pulled out the way they came, undetected to everyone outside the suite. Hours later someone would walk in the suite, and find 12 dead bodies not knowing how and when.

And the Shadows pulled away in their shuttle smiling, knowing this was only the first of many.

The Shadows - Part 2: The Crew
Date: 5 September 2002, 5:07 am

The five Shadows at the top of their class was known among the Shadows as the Crew. Again, these five were Castor-88, Josh-23, Mike-53, Willie-32, and Cameron-78. Each one of them had characteristics and skilled that built the almost unstoppable team.

Mike was the most stable of the five, almost automatically making him the one with the best shot. In training, he bullseyed a moving target 100 yards away with one sniper rifle shot while strafing...without the scope. His ability to control the way his body moves make him a valuable part to this "Crew". His great shot with just about any weapon (especially sniper rifles and pistols) enables him to cover his team and be up to defending an outpost if he had to from invading enemy troops. He can fire very accurately and very swiftly. Many of his squad's successes were because of his great shot.

Josh on the other hand was crazy. Not in a way that he needed therapy, but in his style of fighting. He has single-handedly dropped into rooms and slaughtered groups of enemy soldiers with nothing but a knife in each hand. The chemical implants on him also grew into his strenght, so if he wasn't a Shadow he'd qualify as a Spartan. In this way, he has fought up to five people at once and eliminated each. Not only is he an insane fighter, but his attitude against enemies is brutal. If he has the chance, he will wound his opponent several times before finishing them off. So far, he is undefeated in hand to hand combat, and just about any other combat that he's charged the room in. He's also been known to bust into rooms with a pistol in each hand, shooting the hell out of anything that moves within the room. His enemies would most likely fear him, but again nobody knows exactly what happens. People find his victims laying in rooms torn apart, and that's the only fear that people feel...no one has survived against him.

Willie on the other hand is the weakest of the group physically, but his speed is greater than any other living thing heard of. In their missions he has drawn fire to himself, and to his enemies it almost appears that he is dodging every individual bullet as he runs and moves. His speed and agility aren't his only weapons, he can also leap very high and climb almost flat surfaces. Combined with Josh's strenght and cooperation, Willie has been able to jump about as high as a two story building.

Cameron is pretty good at everything, like everyone else in their squad. Except that he is an excellent driver. Anything he has gotten his hands on he is able to drive in minutes, with or without keys. This has come in handy for quicky escapes during missions. His favorite vehicle is the common Warthog, because its just about all terrain and can offroad like crazy...and Cameron can be quite the crazy driver.

Castor is the "leader" of the group. His leadership skills surpass the others by a long shot, and he is also the most courageous aside from Josh. He is mostly all-around, except he is probably the most stealth of the five. He is usually the first to drop out of their cover, because he can sneak around the quietest and hide the best. Other than Josh, he is probably the highest risk taker too. He has taken several leaps of faith that have helped his team. Most of all, he is the most qualified to lead all of the Shadows behind enemy lines.

The four Shadow squads were preparing for their individual missions until a news flash came over the radio...something about hostile aliens at Harvest...

The Shadows - Part 3: The Covenant
Date: 6 September 2002, 3:27 am

A new group of different alien species, identified as the Covenant, declared a holy war on the human race. The Shadows had already pulled off at least a hundred covert assaults and relayed information crucial to most of the Spartan successes and other successes. But with the Covenant, the Shadows had to adjust the way they eliminated their enemies. With the Spartan encounter on enemy troops, the Shadows went through new training, studying the weaknesses of their new enemies. Once again, the Shadows began launching major operations against the Covenant to relay information. Problem was that the files took a while to be decoded, so the use of the information was almost useless. But there was one mission coming up that was the most important. The objective was to board a Covenant craft, get as far in as they could possibly go and launch a surprise attack from the inside. All 20 Shadows were assigned this task. The Spartans were also supposed to participate in the mission, boarding the ship and attacking from the outside to sort of sandwich their enemies. The Spartans were told that they were going to help in an already planned attack, but the ones they were helping would not appear to them. Basically, the Shadows were going to make a clear way for the Spartans to get on and transfer information. This mission was before the one to board the Covenant craft and take it. This mission was strictly to get as much information from inside the Covenant systems as possible. But as always, problems came up that were almost insolvable...

"These vents are horrible," whispered Josh, who was crawling in the Covenant version of ventilation systems. He had point, and they were almost to their objective: the bridge. "Suck it up, Josh, this mission will give us a long vacation," replied Mike. Josh replied back, "Vacation? When was the last time you had a vacation? Because I certainly can't remember mine. And oh yes, that's right, we've been together this whole time. That means we've had NO vacation. "Give it a rest, Josh. We've been through these vents a million times. Why complain now?" asked Castor, who was the unofficial leader of the group. Josh was always mad when they had to give the Spartans cover. "Well, Castor, if it weren't for us the Spartans wouldn't be half as successful as they are. Why can't we get any of the credit?" Josh again replied. Castor simply responded, "Because then people will know about us, and our ultimate cover will be blown. Lets keep it as it is. Now don't say anything, we're coming up to the bridge here."

The five Shadows slid through the vents around the bridge, as the other fifteen Shadows took the hallways outside of the bridge. On a swift count of three, all fifteen Shadows dropped from the vents and secured the bridge. There were two Elites on the bridge, but with the plasma weapons that the Shadows took along with them, they were put down rather quickly. They set a C12 charge inside the bridge on the controls and such, and then took positions outside the bridge to defend against any enemies. As all 20 set up their defenses, the explosion in the bridge went off, followed by loud alarms. The sounds of the footsteps of Covenant could be heard far down the halls that they were hiding in. The first attackers were groups of Elites, but before the Elites could see anything...explosions went off all around the hallways as the Elites passed by. The Elites were killed as the explosions went off, and the Shadows came out of their hiding places and started exchanging fire with the Jackals and Grunts that followed.

The fire fight continued over the course of about ten minutes. Mike was targeting mainly Elites, since any other weapons weren't as effective. The Shadows didn't have any casualties yet, not taking any risks that had lives at stake. As they were waiting for the Spartan support, an emergency transmission came through to Castor's headset. The message stated, "Castor-88, this is Charles Buchet from Navy Intelligence. The Spartans have been called to Reach and the mission has been canceled. They need to complete the final stage of project: MJOLNIR. So drop all of your preparations and head back to your HQ."

Castor's eyes went wide. The message had not gotten to them in time. He cut off the transmission and yelled out "We're on our own! The Spartans aren't coming!""What the hell are you talking about?" replied Josh, yelling as he threw a grenade down the hall, killing about 3 grunts.Castor yelled back, "The mission was canceled! But since we were so far away the message didn't get to us until now! We have to get out of here!"

All of the Shadows began to fight harder: Not only for their anger that they weren't notified in time of the cancellation, but also with the fact that they were in the middle of a wasps nest. And the wasps new that they were there."Do you think we should head back through the vents or try to get out through one of their hangers?" asked Castor as he ducked for cover next to Cameron.Cameron replied, "We would have a better getaway vehicle if we went through the vents, but they would know we went that way and we'd be toast. But if you can get me to the hanger, I guarantee that I can get us out of here.""OK, we'll do that. We probably won't lose as much men this way either."

Castor started yelling out orders to the Shadows, telling them to move out in the direction of the hanger...or at least where they thought it was. It took a few long minutes but soon they were jogging down halls, ducking for cover when they came across enemy troops. After about half an hour and two casualties, they reached the top level of one of the hangers on the ship. As they looked around they saw at least 20 jackals spread out on different levels and about 20 grunts spread out also...no sign of any Elites. They also noticed two or three Covenant fighters at rest on one side, while a transport shuttle hovered on the other. The remaining 18 Shadows slowly and silently went from box to box, leap frogging their way above the buttons to open the hanger "doors" (which was on the second floor). When they got there, they began to figure out a way to get down without being seen...but this plan halted as a few jackals walked by their cover and spotted them. The biggest fight they'd experience so far was about to take place.

The first few Jackals quickly fell to the Shadows who were around that area. After the shots went off, all of the troops in the hanger became alert and started to shoot in that direction. Knowing that the Covenant were going to send their troops to this hanger, the Shadows moved fast. Josh was the first to take a risk, jumping off the top balcony down to where the buttons were on the second floor. He flipped in the air, shooting off an AR in each hand at the Covenant on the second floor with him. As he landed, he rolled for cover...just in time for two more Shadows to land where he once stood. The Shadows started dropping down to the second floor, all except for Mike and two Shadows to cover him...he was going to provide sniper cover until they were ready to leave, then he would get down and get in. Mike began to pick off Covenant troops on the second floor, specifically looking for Elites and Hunters, while the two with him gave him cover from enemies on the top floor. The rest of the Shadows positioned themselves on the little "peninsula" on the second floor where the buttons were located, exchanging fire with the growing amounts of Covenant around them.

"Castor, has Cameron figured that thing out yet?" yelled Josh as he ripped out his knife from a dead Jackal who tried to charge them."Not yet. He hasn't driven a Covenant vehicle before, aside from those Banshees," replied Castor as he barely dodged a plasma shot."He better hurry up, because we aren't going to live much longer than ten more minutes!"

The fight raged on. They fought the hardest they could, as a Shadow dropped dead every minute or two. They watched as they saw a plasma grenade fly into their position and stick to a box, and an honorable Shadow pushed the box off to save everyone else but losing his life in the process. They saw as a Shadow attempted to throw a grenade, and then get shot right in the face by plasma...and watched as the tremendous heat melted his face down until he died. After about 12 minutes, the shuttle came to life and the side flaps flipped down...Cameron figured out how to work it, but at the cost of five more Shadow's lives.

"Castor! Start loading them up! This thing has enough armor to withstand about 20 fuel-rods, but we still gotta hurry!" Cameron yelled out to Castor from inside the shuttle. Castor began loading the Shadows into the shuttle one by one. The two that were covering Mike jumped down, but as Mike was about to a fuel-rod was shot in his direction. He jumped back in time to live, but the force of the blast threw him back into the wall. He hit the ground hard, but he stood up and limped back to the ledge. The shuttle was turning in his direction to allow more Shadows to enter more easily. He saw Josh on the second floor still fighting to cover the rest of the Shadows, with Willie and a few others along with him. Then he saw Castor, who was standing on the flap that lowers to allow men to enter, helping other Shadows to get aboard. Castor looked up and saw Mike hurt up at the top floor.

Different ideas went through Mike's mind, but he finally built up all the strength he had left after the blast he took. He backed up and sprinted towards the ledge. He leaped off, heading towards the flap of the ship which Castor stood on. Mike began to fall towards the ground, coming up a bit short of the shuttle. Castor reached out and barely was able to grab onto Mike's hand, barely holding on to him as he hung from the ship. Castor put all the strength he had into both his arms: One was holding onto Mike and the other was holding a part of the shuttle for support. He pulled his hardest until Mike could grab on to the shuttle with his other hand. With that done, he helped Mike the rest of the way up. Mike, unable to do much, made his way to the mounted plasma gun below the ship and made use of it.

All but five Shadows were on the shuttle: Josh, Willie, and three others. They were backing up to the end of their little "peninsula" and the other three started to load on. Two of them successfully got aboard, but then two hunters from the top floor came into view, both shooting their fuel-rods at the same time. Willie saw it in time, and dove away. But Josh and the other Shadow didn't, and as the large explosion hit they were both thrown off the platform to the bottom floor. Josh was lucky and didn't take the main blow, but the other did and could not move his legs...which wer,"e ripped to shreds. They were each blown to the different sides of the "peninsula," isolating them both from helping each other. Within seconds, jackals and grunts completely eradicated the helpless Shadow who could do nothing but shoot at them while laying on the ground. Josh on the other hand was still going strong, ducking behind cover and exchanging fire with jackals and grunts. Mike was very helpful and shot down at most of the Covenant with the transport's gun.

Josh had the timing, and he ran from his cover to the side of the shuttle and looked up at Castor. "Castor! Toss me down the rest of the C12!"Castor's eyes widened in shock. "Are you crazy?!" he yelled back.Josh replied "I'll cover you guys! Don't worry, I'll get out!"Castor didn't want to leave a man behind, but he had faith in Josh. He took the last two blocks of C12 and tosses each one down to Josh. He took them back to his cover as the shuttle began to turn to head out the hanger door. Willie, who was still on the peninsula, pressed the button and opened it. He then took a running start and jumped a gap of about 15 feet to land in the flap of the shuttle and jump in. The flaps closed up.

Josh took one block of C12 and tossed it into the air, all the way up to the top floor. He pulled his pistol and was able to shoot it before it began to come back down, blowing out mostly everything near the top floor...which barricaded the entrances up there and most of the entrances on the second floor. He looked down and saw about five Elites enter the hanger from the bottom floor: The same floor he was on. He hurled the last C12 in their direction and took aim. As the Elites began to fire at him, he shot the C12, which sent him flying back into a wall and killing most of the Elites. He hit the ground hard, but was able to pull himself to his feet a few moments later. As he stood and smiled at what he had done, he saw an Elite also pull himself up...

The Elite and Josh both pulled their guns and began to fire...but ironically, both guns were broken from the blast. The Elite waited for his shields to recharge, but they did not...obviously broken or malfunctioning from the blast. They stared each other down for a moment, and the Elite reached down and grabbed something, and then a plasma sword formed in his hand. Josh smiled and pulled both of his daggers, one in each hand. They continued the stare down for only a few seconds more, and then they charged each other.

The Elite took a swing so hard that it would have probably taken off Josh's head, but Josh jumped and flipped over the Elite, spinning and kicking it in the back of the head. The Elite stumbled forward, but turned again to take another swing. This time Josh somersaulted to dodge, and was forced to do so again to dodge another swing. He stood up and the Elite took another swing. This time Josh dropped his daggers and grabbed the Elite's hands, stopping the sword from hitting him. Then Josh used a technique on the Elite he learned in training, sending the plasma sword hurling away. Both of them somersaulted away to regain themselves. Josh picked up his daggers again, and the Elite picked up a thin piece of metal resembling a human sword, although it wasn't round and not sharp. Another stare down, and another charge.

This time the Elite had the upper hand. He successfully hit Josh in the gut and across the back. Josh had rolled away and charged again, taking a few slices at the Elite. The Elite blocked several, but then was cut in his rib area and then his chest area. The Elite and Josh continued fighting without stopping for a minute, occasionally hitting the other...but mostly just throwing out attacks and having them blocked type of thing. The Elite then maneuvered his piece of metal to throw the daggers out of Josh's hands. As the Elite took a swing at Josh's head, Josh dropped to the ground and swung his leg up, kicking the metal out of the Elite's hand. Josh then jumped back up, and continued fighting with his fists along with the Elite. The Elite accidentally kicked a grenade off of Josh's utility belt, and the pin slipped off. Josh and the Elite both jumped away as the explosion went off, setting off other explosions and sending shrapnel all over the place.

Josh pushed a sheet of metal off of himself and stood up. He took a look around and noticed pieces of debris gently falling from the upper floors from other wreckage that took place. He took a look around, and hear a quiet sound behind him that a normal human wouldn't be able to hear. Josh ducked and caught the Elites arm just as the Elite swung to hit him in the head, and proceeding to slingshot him over his shoulder and to the ground in front of him. Josh held him in a position similar to the sleeper hold, only one hand was around his neck/chest area...the other hand was holding the Elite's arm, which now held a fully functional plasma pistol. They wrestled around the room like this until finally the Elite ran full speed at a wall and slammed Josh into it, knocking Josh to the ground and sending the Elite stumbling back from the hard hit. Josh lay on the ground, too hurt to be able to jump back to his feet. He looked forward and saw the Elite pulling himself up. Josh looked around and looked for something to use. He noticed something...one of his daggers under a sheet of metal along with a plasma grenade. He began pulling at the dagger and grenade, trying to pull them out from the heavy load. The Elite turned, and gave out a laugh at Josh. He then turned away to pick up the plasma pistol Josh finally was able to pull it out. In one swift motion Josh pulled the dagger out from underneath the metal, activated and stuck the plasma grenade to the tip of the knife and launched it at the Elite. As the Elite turned back around, it struck him in the middle of his chest, causing him to stumble back and drop the plasma pistol.

Josh watched as the plasma grenade went off inside his chest, blowing his body to pieces. Josh wiped the Elite's splattered blood off of his face with his ripped shirt, and began looking around for a way out. He heard the sound of others, and looked to one of the entrances to see other Covenant making a whole in the barricade that was formed. Josh knew he probably wouldn't make it out, being exhausted and hurt the way he was, but he pulled himself to his feet and got ready to go down fighting...

Fifteen minutes later, on the dropship which the other Shadows escaped in..."I knew he wouldn't have made it, I should have ordered him in the transport," said Castor, who was leaning against a wall in the transport.Mike shook his head and replied, "I know we all were attached to our squad, but Josh prevented any more death. Because of him we still have 10 men left.""It would have been eleven if we would have picked him up," Castor replied.

There conversation was interrupted when Cameron yelled to them that a Covenant fighter was approaching from their rear. As they were about to get ready to attack, a transmission came through the Covenant radio on the ship..."Yo...is that you guys?" came over the radio.Cameron pressed a button, and replied, "Who's this?""Oh come on...you're in the freaking middle of no where and a stranded ship comes up to you and speaks English to you? Who the hell do you think this?"Cameron smiled and replied, "Good point man. Just follow us, we can't bring you in right now."

Cameron turned to Castor smiling. "Guess who?" he said in a smart tone. Castor smiled...his friend had survived.

Although their mission was incomplete, and although they lost nine men, their mission was a successful failure. Every surviving man was given a variety of medals, including the Medal of Honor being given to Josh. The lost Shadows were also given medals but since they had no family to send these medals to, they simply hung them up above their bunks in the Shadow HQ.

The Navy Intelligence issued a LARGE apology to the Shadows. They would have made it public, but again that would ruin the cover and protection of the Shadows. Instead of getting a break, the Shadows began to prepare for their next mission...secretly assisting the Spartans in taking a Covenant ship.

The Shadows - Part 4: Preparing for Reach
Date: 10 September 2002, 3:20 am

NOTE: This chapter in the series has no fighting scene or anything, just showing the preparation for the actual battle (which will be in Part 5)..

The remaining eleven Shadows had regrouped into one of their own shuttles and headed to Reach. There they went to their secret HQ and awaited further instructions. All they were told on their upcoming mission was that they'd be assisting the Spartans secretly. Word had it that the Spartans were already in the ship known as the Pillar of Autumn and heading out. Just a minute ago they heard on a radio that the Pillar of Autumn was about to make the jump out of the system to start the mission.

The Shadows were resting in their headquarters in their own private underground bunker far off of the main Reach facilities. Most of them were allowing their wounds to heal up, especially Josh. Josh had suffered from several deep cuts and internal bruises that he could barely walk without everything beginning to hurt extremely bad. Mike had suffered from his shoulder popping out of the socket when he had jumped from the ledge and saved by Castor, but medics placed it back into place successfully. All he had to do right now is deal with the pressure and pain. He was taking his mind off of it, polishing his custom sniper rifle and fixing up a few modifications. Willie was icing down his legs. From all the explosions he barely escaped, his legs took quite a beating and they were extremely sore. Cameron was hardly injured, just a few internal bruises from explosions during the escape. Castor was practically not hurt at all. He suffered from only a few scratches and bruises. He was walking around talking to everyone about the mission and keeping their spirits up.

As he was ending a conversation with Willie, a beeping sound was heard...a transmission was coming in from the Navy Intelligence. Their AI, known as Havok, loaded the message onto their viewing monitor...and it was not what they expected. Instead of giving them their instructions on their awaited mission, it canceled that mission. Josh made a wise crack about how they were finally on time, but only a few laugh as they read on. The message was saying that large objects were headed through Slip Stream space in the direction of Reach, the same type of objects that headed to Sigma Octanus. Everyone got the message: Reach was going to be invaded.

Instead of some type of mission to board a ship, they had another objective: Stay on the service of Reach and act as if they were part of the Marines. If they can't act as Marines, they were supposed to at least help with the effort to defend Reach on the planet itself since a ground invasion was likely. The Shadows reluctantly accepted the task and suited up in their strongest armor...today was going to be one of those days. As soon as they were ready, they split up into four of their modified Warthogs and headed to the main area of Reach where an attack would most likely take place.

Less Than An Hour Later

"Thats the signal...the Covenant invasion on the ground is taking place. Everyone get ready!" Castor yelled out to his Shadows. They told the Marines that they were part of the Shock Troopers who were running a camp outside of the main facilities. Now they had a small zone of their own to worry about. There were towers, bunkers, and foxholes with rail guns, chain guns, turrets, the works. Artillery was set up ahead of time and is ready to go. All of these defenses, except the towers of course, were hidden under camouflage cover...allowing a sort of ambush when the Covenant got close. Most of the towers were rigged with explosives, in case they had to retreat and blow up some Covenant.

Mike looked through his 20x sniper scope into the horizon...
"Yup, that's got to be at least a thousand shuttles," he stated.
Castor sighed. "This is going to be one hell of a fight. Might as well make it a good one."
Mike gave out a small laugh. "Define a good fight for me."
"A good fight, to me, is when the winner gains respect for the loser and the battle is close the whole way. We know the Covenant don't respect us, and we certainly don't respect them," Castor replied.
Mike said back to him,"Whatever man. This is just going to be brutal."

Josh had put extra strength pain reliever in his system so his pain wouldn't keep him from doing different tasks. Cameron was sitting in a Warthog, with Mike in the passenger seat and Willie on the gun. Castor was up in a tower on the frontlines, looking out at the shuttles about 3000 yards away landing their troops. There must have been at least 250 shuttles, meaning a lot more enemies to fight then they could handle. Castor looked side to side down the human's lines of defense...maybe up to 2 to 3,000 Marines spread out along a few miles each way. Their lines of defense were filled with foxholes, sandbag bunkers, burried bunkers, sniper towers, turrets, and machine gun towers. There were also a lot of tanks and other vehicles. A transmission came in saying that the Human air fighters would be in the air shortly. Castor looked out at the Covenant again through the binoculars...Banshees were being deployed and piloted.

About 1/3 of the total amount of Marines stationed themselves in all the defenses. The other 2/3 of them gathered about 100 yards in front of the defensive lines, getting ready to meet the Covenant's attack away from the lines of defense. This would give time to allow high officials to be evacuated from Reach, and delay the Covenant advancement a great deal from the Power Generators allowing the Orbital MAC guns to work. The generator they were defending was one of the main ones, so the battle was going to be large. Mike headed up to a tower with his custom sniper rifle to already start sniping Covenant. A shuttle came down and dropped off some reinforcements...the rest of the Spartans had come to help out and they joined the counter attack force. The rest of the Shadows joined the marines in front of the defensive line, ready to meet the attack.

The Marines began to march toward the area where the Covenant landed, taking their time to save energy. Warthogs were also going slowly behind the Marine lines, and tanks behind the Warthogs. Cameron was driving one of the Warthogs, with Willie in the gunner and Castor in the passenger seat. Josh was in the front of the entire counter-attack force, with two new large daggers handing on his belt and a custom Assault Rifle strapped around his back. Nobody was stupid, they knew that they weren't going to win this battle. Their motivation was that they were going to die either way, and to die while killing Covenant was better than dying while running and hiding. The Covenant came into good view, about 500 yards away now. They too were marching forward in a large herd like movement, with a Gold Elite standing in front to lead. And everyone knew it was about to go down...

The Shadows - Part 5: The Battle for Reach
Date: 11 September 2002, 4:21 am

NOTE: I think that this section is pretty long. I spent a lot of time on it, so I hope you enjoy it.

A minute later, the two sides both stopped at the same time about 150 yards away from each other. There was a stare down between the two sides, and Josh targeted the lead Gold Elite. Josh then yelled out to break the silenced, not saying anything....just yelling. All the Humans also joined in, yelling and screaming at the Covenant. The Covenant started yelling, and both sides charged the other. The front lines of both sides shot at each other as they charged, and bodies from both sides dropped dead. Josh shot his gun as he ran, not halting his scream of anger. As the two sides were about to meet, Josh threw the gun around to hang on his back. He pulled out his two large daggers and held them in front of him. The two sides came together, and Josh started it out nice by slicing the Gold Elite's head off as they collided. The Shadows, Spartans, and Marines begun the biggest land battle known to mankind up to that point...that stretched across the entire planet of Reach.

The engines accelerated as the Warthogs charged forward to join the battle. Cameron was going faster than the others, fixing up his engine beforehand. Castor rested his gun on the windshield, and Willie cocked the LAAG on the back. Cameron carefully maneuvered the Warthog so he wouldn't hit any humans. He then rammed through Covenant lines, crushing the ones in front with the car as Willie and Castor rained fire down upon them. The other Warthogs took similar roots. Cameron caught a view of a light and saw a plasma grenade land on the front hood.

"Everyone bail out!" Cameron yelled on instinct. He jumped from the vehicle without hesitation.
"Holy shit!" Castor saw Cameron jump and also saw the grenade. He jumped a second after Cameron.
Willie didn't hear him right away, and as he looked down a few seconds later he saw the grenade. He leaped off the Warthog just as the grenade exploded, sending shrapnel all over the place. Willie hit the ground only hurt a little bit, and he jumped up and pulled out a hand gun in each hand. He wasted no time joining the battle, as did both Cameron and Castor.

Castor, Cameron, and Willie moved forward into the Covenant hordes...working as a team to take down loads of Covenant.  An Elite swung at Castor with a plasma sword, and Castor ducked as Cameron hit the Elite in the back of the head from behind, and Willie shoved a knife into his face as he fell forward. An explosion made by a Covenant tank sent both Covenant and Marines flying. Castor caught one of these Marines, and found him dead. Just as he noticed the marine was dead, an Elite shot at him. Castor pulled the marine up and used him as a shield. He then charged the Elite, still holding up the marine. As he neared the Elite, he threw the marine at him and pulled his shotgun. The Elite threw the marine off of himself, and as he looked back at Castor he was shot to death with the shotgun. Willie was also kicking some ass of his own. A Jackal charged him, and as he neared Willie shot the shield a lot to make the Jackal have an unstable hold on it. Then he flipped over to the other side of the Jackal, spun, and round house kicked it directly in the face. He also bashed in the heads of three other Jackals and five Grunts using similar techniques. He also was shooting down Jackals and Grunts with his handguns. Josh of course was brutally ravaging through the Covenant lines with his two daggers. He came face to face with an Elite, and sliced away at the Elite. The Elite threw a melee attack with his rifle at Josh's head, but Josh ducked it and stabbed the Elite in the neck...killing it. Jackals charged him, but Josh kicked their shields away and took about five slices into their small, pathetic bodies to kill them. He was always moving forward, killing Covenant as he went, but never took one step backwards. This kept everyone moving forward, taking his lead. Even a Hunter charged Josh. But being the way he is, Josh simply held his ground. The Hunter took a large swing at Josh, but Josh ducked it. In the same motion he lunged up and stabbed both daggers into the Hunter's neck...where one of the orange weak spots were. He threw the Hunter to the ground, pulling his daggers out, and continued pushing into the Covenant lines. The way the Shadows and Spartans were fighting, you would have thought they were going to win the battle.

The Humans were killing off the Covenant by the second, but they too were losing their troops FAST. And as many Covenant they killed, it seemed that there were an unlimited supply of them. A full retreat was ordered, and the Marines started jumping on available warthogs and taking off. The tanks began to back up, shooting at the Covenant in the process.The retreating Humans ran past the tanks, and the tanks were soon overrun by the Covenant attack. The Shadows and Spartans got back to the line of defense without any casualties, only some bruises. All the defenses were hidden, but set up. The Covenant continued to charge forward towards the installation as the Marines reached it. When the Covenant were about 30 yards away from the hidden defenses, they all began to open fire on the unsuspecting Covenant. Hundreds of Covenant were dropping, but they continued to charge forward.

After only a few minutes, the Covenant started to climb over the small embankment where the defenses lay. This time the Marines didn't retreat, for two reasons: 1. There was no where to retreat to, and 2. They could not let this generator fall. Hordes of Jackals and Elites stormed over the embankment, invading bunkers from the rear and attacking the Marines. Elites also stormed over the hill, shooting down and beating on Marines.

Castor jumped into a trench further back, picking up a radio.
"Any UNSC ships out there, we need reinforcements at the Main Power Generator. Repeat, we need reinforcements down here!"
A transmission came back saying, "We read you, but you'll have to make do. All available reinforcements have already been sent out to other areas."
"Are you crazy?! There's thousands of these guys, we'll fall easy."
"We understand that, soldier. But you'll have to stand it. We already may have reinforcements coming that way."
"Roger that. Over and out."

Castor dropped the radio and looked up at the sky. Indeed, he saw about five Pelicans coming in their direction. He gave a bit of a smile, but then the smile faded as he saw a large group of Banshees engage the Pelicans, blowing them out of the sky. Castor gasped, and quickly started to fight...this time with rage and anger. He charged towards the Covenant troops coming up past their defenses. A few Grunts saw him, and started running away, waving their arms over their heads as they ran. Castor targeted the Grunts and shot them each with his shotgun. He then turned and bashed the butt of his gun into an unsuspecting Elite, knocking the Elite to the ground. He then continued to the beat the Elite to a bloody pulp until it lay motionless on the ground. He saw one of the bunkers be overran by a horde of Jackals and Grunts and he ran in that direction. He hurled his body into a few closely gathered Grunts, knocking them all to the ground and rolling into the bunker. He then began beating them down with his shotgun, shooting them as he stood up. He also blasted the Jackals who jumped in to help. As he stepped back out of the bunker, he realized that the Covenant were flooding past him. The rage faded as he ran out of the bunker and back to where there were more humans.

Mike was still picking off Covenant from the highest tower, having his kill count up to about 200 right now. To him, time stopped as he saw a Covenant tank fire in his direction. The projectile flowed towards his tower, and landed a direct hit about half way to the top. The tower tilted a bit, in a rough manner, making Mike lose his balance and slide. He slipped off but grabbed onto the railing, now dangling about 30 yards in the air. He pulled himself up, and as he threw himself over the rail, another Tank projectile hit the tower near the top. This sent the very top falling to the ground. Mike held on to the railing as the tower fell. It hit hard, and he slammed into the ground. Most of the Marines with him died, but some were still alive. Mike crawled out of the wreckage, hurt beyond belief. He had no major wounds, however, and stood up outside the wreckage...but it wasn't over for him.

An Elite jumped in front of him and gave Mike a hard back hand. Mike stumbled away and the Elite jumped at him with a fist, sending him rolling to the ground. Mike threw himself to his feet as the Elite struck another blow across Mike's face, sending him back into the tower wreckage. The Elite grabbed Mike and yanked him to his feet. He then turned and threw him into one of the fallen tower's walls, making a whole in the now fragile brick. Mike hit the ground hard and rolled to a stop. He barely pulled himself up as the Elite jumped through the hole. Mike grabbed a brick and chucked it at the Elite, hitting him in the chest and knocking him back. The Elite charged forward and kicked Mike in the chest, sending him to the ground and hitting a pile of bricks. The Elite smiled as he picked up a brick and walked up to the fallen human. The Elite's smile faded as he looked at the Human's hand...it seemed to be a detonator.
"I never go anywhere without insurance..." The Elite dove at Mike, but it was too late. Mike pressed the button, and what remained of his tower blew up in flames.

Castor turned as the explosion went off, and knew who went down with it. He said a very quick prayer for his friend, and continued fighting. The Marines were rallied up, and they were actually not dying as fast as expected. A Marine even killed an Elite 1 on 1. The Spartans were still going strong, killing the majority of the Covenant that came. The problem was they kept coming. For every Covenant that was killed, there would be at least five more coming past the defenses to replace it. Only a few bunkers and turrets were still standing and fighting, along with about three towers. The more the Covenant came, the more they pushed the humans back towards the power generator.

Cameron and a few marines ran back to the installation to look for some kind of escape There was a basement with some disguisable doors leading down to the lower areas of Reach. Cameron also found a few Longswords in one of the hangers in the back. They came back out to continue the fight.

Josh carried a LAAG in his arms, strafing and firing it to kill masses of Covenant. He occasionally swung it and slammed it into enemies, but mostly just firing. There were about 400 Marines left, and everybody was falling back to the installation, where backup turrets and other defenses were set up ahead of time just in case. Everyone got into the facility and set up machine guns and such in the windows and began shooting at the Covenant. As always, there were still more charging the installation. Knowing they were going to fall, the Spartans began getting Marines into the underground system through hidden doors in the installation's basement. After a few minutes all the Marines ran down into the basement, and the Covenant tore through the entrances of the installation, in pursuit of the Marines.

The Shadows and Spartans finished loading the Marines through the secret doors.
"Ok, now you guys go," said Castor to the lead Spartan.
"You go, we'll fight them off and get in after," said the Spartan, who's name was Kelly.
"No, they need you down there. Not us."
Kelly looked at him, and said,"You aren't Marines, are you?"
Castor smiled and replied, "No, we are not."
Kelly nodded and said,"Ok, we'll go. Good luck."
The Spartans began to head down the door, and the remaining Shadows (now at 9) headed up the basement stairs to hold off the Covenant. The Shadows weren't charging forward like they usually do...just hanging back and fighting any Covenant who came their way. After about two minutes of fighting them off, they head back into the basement...but find the door shut and locked.

"Dammit! I knew they were going to leave us behind," Josh yelled out.
Castor replied,"No, I wanted them to. This way no one will know about us, and no one else will die."
"Damn right no one else will know about us, we'll be dead," Josh replied back.
Cameron interrupted,"No, there was a longsword in one of the hangers. It has enough room to fit the nine of us in it. If we can hurry, we can make it before this place blows."
Castor smiled,"Then lets do it."

They all head out of the basement and start heading to the other side of the installation. They reach the hanger without encountering enemy troops, and find it covered with Covenant. They all realize they have nothing to lose, so they charge in. They all throw grenades at first, blowing away a lot of the Covenant before they even knew what was going on. They sprinted in the direction of the nearest Longsword, firing at the Covenant and throwing grenades as they go. Cameron jumps in the pilot seat and immediately starts to activate everything. Josh and Willie and a few others stay outside and continue the firefight with the Covenant to allow Cameron to start the Longsword up. The engine roars loudly, and the Shadows still in the hanger started to get in one by one. "Cameron, start heading out! We'll jump in as you go!" yelled Willie as they were still shooting. Cameron heard him, and he started to move towards the hanger door. The Shadows outside were running along side of it for cover, jumping in as they ran. There were three left on the ground: Josh, Willie, and another Shadow named Carl. Carl jumped up to climb in, but caught a Hunter's fuel rod cannon while in the air...which blew him to pieces. Josh and Willie stumbled a bit from the blast but continued running. Josh jumped up and climbed in quickly, and reached back down to get Willie. Willie jumped and grabbed Josh's hands, and they yell to Cameron to go. As Josh started to pull Willie up, a few Elites run up to the Longsword and start shooting their plasma rifles. Willie gets hit twice: once in his leg and once in his arm. He loses his grip and slips off, falling to the ground. Josh yells back up to Cameron to make a U-Turn...but once he sees the Covenant start moving towards Willie's position, he couldn't take it. He jumped out of the Longsword and hit the ground running back towards Willie...he could never leave a man behind, especially one of his best friends.

Willie was still fighting, limping behind cover and shooting with his pistols. Josh dove over a crane with an AR in each hand, shooting like crazy as he somersaulted on the ground and slid behind the same cover as Willie. He looked Willie up and down, and saw that he was hit several more times after he fell. He hooked up his earpiece and linked up with the Longsword.
Josh connected and spoke over the comlink. "Yo Castor, Cameron...whoever. Willie is hurt here pretty badly."
He heard Castor's voice come back to him. "I bet. Can you get out of the hanger for an evac?"
Josh looked at the Covenant moving closer and shot out some rounds at them, pushing them back a bit. "I could have, but the Covenant just closed the hanger doors."
Castor sighed in disbelief...he was going to lose them. The whole installation was flooded with Covenant, they couldn't make it out. "We'll come back for you two, Josh. We'll blast our way in."
Josh shot out more rounds at the Covenant moving towards them, killing a few and wounding even more. He put the piece back to his ear. "Don't be foolish, Castor. You'd kill the rest of the Shadows. You don't worry about us...we'll get out of here one way or another..."
A tear almost came to Castor's eye. They were trained not to mourn for their dead, but these men were more than just his team, they were his friends...his brothers."I read you loud and clear, Josh...good luck to you."
"I'll see you later man...trust me," Josh said, and he dropped the comlink. He threw a grenade at a group of Covenant troops and started throwing out rounds after rounds at the Covenant, dragging Willie back to other positions as he did. Castor was still listening what the comlink was picking up, which wasn't anything but explosions and shooting. Then he heard a screaming sound, and a few Elites laughing...Castor disconnected the link. He couldn't bear to hear it any longer. He walked to the pilot area, where Cameron was flying. He acted as if it didn't happen.

"Cameron, get us to our HQ as fast as you can. We need to get into our own ship and get out of here," Castor yelled as he made his way to the co-pilot seat.
"I'm already a step ahead of you, I'm headed there now...problem is, there are like 50 Covenant Ghosts headed in that direction. We'll show up first but we will only have a few minutes to pack up and leave."
Castor nodded,"Then step on it."

They arrive at their HQ and quickly get off the shuttle. They run into their quarters and pack only the important stuff. They load up their Stealth shuttle as the Ghosts arrive. They all grabbed up as many weapons as they could and got ready. They were all set up, as the hanger door opened...and the Elites charged in. Castor manned a modified version of the LAAG, made to be portable and to take down infantry, and he mowed down the Elites as they came in. Cameron also shot off rockets at the hanger door, knocking out Elites before they could step in. As they both reloaded, the remaining Elites ran in and grabbed some cover of their own. A firefight began, and the Shadows were outnumbered 29 to 6. Castor unloaded the rest of his belt of machine gun, and then threw the gun into their shuttle. Castor then started to yell out to get in their shuttle. Cameron ran in first to start it up, obviously. Another Shadow came in with him, to man to the gun on the side of the shuttle. As the gun was activated, it started to blast at the Covenant troops, making them duck for cover. As they ducked for cover, the rest of the Shadows started to load on. Castor and a Shadow named Danny first ran over to a storage area in the hanger. They dug through junk and took out a nuke packed into a missile. They were shot at, but returned fire and made the Covenant duck again. They carried the missile over to their shuttle and connected it to one of the launchers on the wing. They then also jumped on with the the rest of them, and the ramp closed and the shuttle took off. The gunner kept the Elites down as the shuttle flew out of the hanger and into the sky.

Cameron turned back to their HQ, and bombed the hell out of it. They then returned to the main installation and saw that the power generator had already been destroyed and the Covenant were leaving. All the Covenant they could see were rushing back about 2 miles to where they landed their shuttles. Cameron flew to the landing zone and dropped a bomb...the nuclear missile that Castor and Danny packed. Then they pulled up and headed out...there was no more for them to do there. Their shuttle was cloaked, and as they reached space they were disappointed at what they saw. There were about ten more human ships left, and they were scattering away, getting ready to make jumps to slip stream. They saw a ship they recognized...the Pillar of Autumn. Cameron turned in its direction, intending to board it. But instead, the ship entered slip stream and headed off.

They had no where to go. The ships that were left were either leaving the system through slip stream space or being mopped up by the Covenant. Their choices were slimmed down even further as they begin to see thousands of Covenant transports coming from the planet, heading to their ships. Cameron instinctively headed away from the shuttles, not wanting any more trouble than they could handle.

Cameron for once was getting really nervous. "Castor, talk to me man...where are we going?"
Castor was just as clueless as Cameron. "I have no idea. How many ships are still around?"
Danny was looking at their radar. "About three, but two are about to leave and the other one is covering them."
Castor yelled, "Dammit! What other choices do we have?"
Danny looked at some information that their AI Havok brought in. He read it over and stated, "Just about all the Covenant ships are headed in the same direction as the Pillar of Autumn. The rest are splitting into groups going after each of the fleeing ships. A few of the larger 'sniper' ships are heading somewhere WAY off our navigational charts."
Castor turned and looked at Danny...and Danny stared right back, knowing where the ships were headed.
"Havok, you there?" Castor said aloud, seeing if the AI was present.
Havok's hologram, a gang banger wearing baggy clothes and a beanie, came up in front of the navigation panel. "I'm here, Castor."
Castor smiled, "I want you to track those sniper ships to where ever they are going."
Havok smiled back at him. "You want me to shoot one of our stealth tracking bugs on them?"
Castor glared at the AI. "They did it to us. What do you think I am going to say?"
"I'll take that as a yes, and also a thank you," Havok disappeared, and he shot off one of their tracking bugs and flew it to the main sniper ship. Stealth mode was already on, and he attached it to the area underneath the ship.
Castor looked back to where Havok's hologram was, and he reappeared. "Havok...one more thing. This ship is capable of slip stream, right?"
Havok nodded. "Yes. But it will drain most of the power out for a period of time."
Castor had thought of that fact. "Well, Havok, send the results of the tracking beam back to Earth as soon as they come in. And you make a decision...send us either after the Pillar of Autumn, or send us back to Earth. The Covenant can't track us either way."
The hologram of Havok gave a nod, and disappeared...

The remaining six Shadows slept in small beds that were mounted in the sides of their ship, which was about the size of an average one-floor house. Castor thought about it, and set the coordinates required for their slip stream jump. The ship made the jump into slip stream space towards their destination...

Heading in the direction of an unknown ring-world....

The Shadows - Part 6: Halo
Date: 13 September 2002, 5:35 am

The battle at Reach left the Shadows with only six men...Castor, Cameron, and four others named Danny, Justin, Archer, and Eddie. They were all awake when they came out of slip stream space, silent as they thought about what had happened on Reach. Thousands...no, more like millions had died. Then they took in their own personal losses: Josh, Willie, Mike, Carl, and another named Marcus. Castor kept trying to think that Josh and Willie could still be alive...when he listened over the comlink there wasn't necessarily enough evidence to say that they were absolutely dead. The more he thought about it, the more he knew he had to just let it go and accept it.

"Yo guys. You might want to see this," Havok said from the hologram. They all went to the window and looked out...they saw the Pillar of Autumn being swarmed by dozens of Covenant ships. Covenant transports were docking and boarding the stranded Human ship. He also saw human escape pods leaving the ship, with a few being shot down. After a few minutes, he saw the last escape pods come out and head in the direction away from them. The Pillar of Autumn itself began to accelerate drastically...and as it moved a large ring was revealed to the Shadows' view. They were almost shocked by the site, then focused their attention on the human ship again. It was obviously going in manually, having rugged turns and such and going fast towards the ring. Many Covenant ships pursued it, until they couldn't see it anymore...it had gone onto the ring.

Havok spoke up again. "Well, my data tells me that this ring we have here is similar to Earth. Most of the same gases, landscapes...thing is the thing was built, not created naturally. Who would build something like that?"
Cameron gave out a short laugh. "Someone who was REALLY bored."

The humor wasn't really working, they were all still emotional about Reach. But this ring they came across was just shocking. Havok was right...who would build something like this? And the bigger question is why.

Castor finally spoke his mind. "Let's head for that ring. I'm almost certain there are Marines down there who we could help out.
Havok thought about it and replied, "I can do that. But the tracking device I put on that other ship is telling me that it is most likely almost to its destination. We are out of range of any other UNSC ship, so we'll have to pull out and head out of here as soon as we receive a signal that the Covenant ship stopped. Plus, the Slip Stream used up a lot of power in this ship...it'll take a bit of time for the power to replenish itself. We are cruising in the direction of the ring, so we'll be there within a few hours. By the time we get there we should be able to use the engines to land and such. But we can't do much for now...nothing but wait."
Castor smiled...Havok was obviously already thinking about this before they even arrived. "Alrite then Havok...tell us when to start getting ready."
"Roger that, Castor. You guys just get some rest. I'll notify you when we are landing."

The Shadows - Part 7: Neo "Lucky" Geo and a Departure
Date: 26 September 2002, 4:43 am

He limped back and forth, carrying fallen tree branches and such to start a fire. After sparking a fire, he sat on a rock and strapped up the wound on his leg. He heard a noise, and he pulled his shotgun out and stood up...but found that it was just a squirrel-like animal jumping down from a tree and running off. He laughed to himself, and sat back down. He would need all the rest he could get, because he had one hell of a day.

He was Major Neo "Lucky" Geo of the Marine Corps. He joined the military to get himself out of his bad neighborhood...where he had been shot nearly ten different times in different places during his teenage days. He worked his way up, and recently became was promoted to Major. During his line of duty he was wounded dozens of times, but pulling through and fully recovering every one. This is where he was given the nickname "Lucky." Just about everyone he knew simply called him Lucky: His superior officers, his friends...he even permitted the troops he commanded to call him Lucky. He fought on Reach, and luckily made it out in time before his station was completely taken. The nearest ship was the Pillar of Autumn. After they arrived at Halo, he made it out in a Pelican. When entering Halo's atmosphere, about five banshees tailed him and shot him down. The people with him died in the crash, but he managed to jump out the back hatch just a second before it hit the ground. An explosion occurred about 20 seconds after the initial crash, and this sent shrapnel into his leg. He is now camped out somewhere on Halo. He does not have a clue where he is, and all of his communication attempts have failed.

Earlier he came across a wounded Elite, but he seemed to be different from the rest of the Covenant. They actually helped each other, and surprisingly enough the Elite could speak English: The Covenant researched the Human language, and then inserted voice microchips into a large amount of chosen Covenant in case they needed to speak it. The Elite's name was Baelrog, and Lucky and him agreed to stay out of each other's way but occasionally help each other. With that, Lucky went back to his camp.

That's where he was now. Waiting for something to happen. He then heard a swoosh-like sound, and looked above him to see a ship hovering high above. The ship lowered and landed next to the camp. The ship was almost hard to see...the colors changed as it moved, to fit the surroundings. He walked over to it with his shotgun raised, not knowing whose ship it was. The ramp lowered, and six figures walked down the ramp...their armor almost resembled the Spartans, except that it was not as large and it was black...but then it suddenly turned to a sage color.

"Are you a marine?" said the one in front.
Lucky stood straight up, knowing it had to be a human now. "Yes, sir, Major Neo Geo, sir."
"Don't call me sir. I hate that word," replied the same one. He continued. "I'm Castor. That's Cameron, Danny, Justin, Archer, and Eddie. How'd you get here?"
"I escaped the Pillar of Autumn on a Pelican, and then I was shot down around here."
"Have you made any contacts yet?"
"Yes. There was an Elite, but he seemed to help me more than hurt me."
"Very well. I think you should come with us. What was your name again?"
"Major Neo Geo, but you can call me Lucky."
"Oh, I've heard of you. You were that Marine who took on those Elites by himself, aren't you?"
"Yes I am."
"Well, you'll be better than I thought."

Lucky wondered what he meant by that, but he decided to go along with it. The group of now seven made their way through the forest, looking for survivors before they left the area. As they were about to head back to their ship, a large whistling sound and an explosion was heard...coming from a quarter mile to a half mile away. They all ran in that direction, knowing that there would have to be humans. As they neared it, a blast from a Covenant Wraith hit near them, and they all dropped to their stomachs. They began to crawl forward, trying to get to the battle. The sounds of a ton of footsteps were heard coming their way. And they all covered themselves in case it was enemies. The footsteps came nearer, and about 30 marines ran by them, occasionally turning around to shoot in the direction they were coming from. As Castor was about to come out and make contact, about 20 Grunts and 10 Jackals ran past their position in pursuit of the Marines. As if by instinct, all the Shadows and Lucky popped up and unloaded their current clips onto the front lines of Covenant.

Castor turned to Cameron. "Cameron, catch up to those Marines and bring them back."
"Yes sir." Cameron took off after the Marines.
Castor turned to the rest of them. "We will continue this battle and take as much as we can. Shoot any Covenant that surrender, and take care of our wounded that may still be out there. Now lets go!"

They ran towards where the battle originated, and they came to a large clearing and were almost shocked to see what they saw. There were at least a dozen Wraith tanks, seven Scorpion tanks, five Banshees flying overhead, a few Longswords overhead, and dozens and dozens of Ghosts and Warthogs. There were Marines and such all over the place, fighting the Covenant and dying as well. Explosions were going off everywhere: From Warthogs, Ghosts, etc. Cameron appeared behind them with all of the Marines, and they waited for Castor's orders. Castor immediately yelled for them to open fire, and they did so...joining the battle. The Shadow's stuck together, and Lucky followed them.

Castor knew that they needed more air support. The Shadows constructed a sort of grappling device out of a sniper rifle and such, and they handed it to Archer. Archer was almost a good of shot as Mike was, so he could probably make the shot. He took a shot at a diving Banshee, and hooked it on one of its wings. All the Shadows pulled on their side, and the Banshee pilot landed...not knowing what was going on. Cameron ran over and shot the pilot, killing him and throwing him aside. Cameron got in and started to take off, but not before Lucky ran over and jumped on top of it. The Banshee took off, and Lucky held on to the top. Cameron noticed him, and flew towards a group of Banshees. Cameron decided to play chicken with another one, and went head on towards it. Lucky slowly got his balance and was ready to jump. At the last minute Cameron dove downwards, and Lucky jumped and grabbed onto the other Banshee's wing. He hung on there by one arm, barely holding onto it. He pulled his other arm up and grabbed on to it also. He then pulled himself up and positioned himself sitting on the wing. He held on with one hand and pulled his sidearm, and then he swung himself around to the back and shot seven shots through the opening into the pilot. As the pilot died, the Banshee opened and the Elite fell towards the ground. The Banshee started to plummet towards the ground, and Lucky pulled himself in and took the controls. He pulled the Banshee up just before it would hit the ground, and caught up with Cameron and took his wing.

Castor scanned the battlefield. The Covenant had five stationary guns on their side of the field just before the treeline, and were very effective. The stationary guns were tearing up Marines who were too close and uncovered. Castor took the other four Shadows and ran through the forest, heading around to the Covenant side of the battlefield. A few minutes later, they snuck past most of the Covenant guards and crept up to the stationary guns. They were hiding between a large group of bushes and behind a log, wondering what to do.

Castor though of something. "Archer, you have your rifle?"
Archer pulled out his own sniper rifle. "Right here."
"Good. When the guns start firing again, shoot each one starting from the left one. As you shoot them, we'll jump in them. You get in the last one, and we'll surprise the Covenant with an attack from the rear with their own guns."
Archer smiled. "Roger that."

The four Shadows positioned themselves behind each gun, and Archer waited until they all started firing. He picked off each Grunt gunner one by one from the left, and when the last Grunt noticed and started to yell something, he dropped out of the gun dead. The Shadows all jumped in and readied themselves. Castor yelled out, "Target the nearest tanks first, then anything else. Once the tanks start shooting at us, bail out." They all acknowledged and started firing streams of plasma out at once. The nearest tank took a lot and went up in flames. A few more tanks went up in flames, and the last two turned and faced them. The Shadows kept firing, and each tank took a shot. The Shadows kept firing until each tank blew up, then they dove away as the tank's shots blew away the guns.

An Elite, two jackals, and four grunts approached the site where the guns once stood and saw nothing but smoke rising from the ground. The Elite gave out a laugh of triumph, but then figures were seen moving in the smoke. The Elite looked closer, and five human Shadows came flying through the wall of smoke. The group of Covenant raised their guns, but the Shadows mowed them down before they had a chance. They charged forward into the battle, making a sort of sandwich out of the Covenant.

In the air, the Humans were starting to overcome the enemy fighters. Cameron and Lucky were double teaming single Banshees and started to eliminate most of them. Cameron shot at an enemy Banshee towards the right of it, forcing it to dodge left. As it dodged left, Lucky anticipated his shot and blew the Banshee away with a fuel-rod. They both pulled away laughing, but then a group of three Banshees pulled behind them. They banked in different directions...one enemy went after Cameron and two went after Lucky.

Lucky flew low, trying to ditch his pursuers by snaking through the vehicles on the ground...but they stayed high and just shot down at him. He continually tried different maneuvers, but they were much more skilled and stayed on him. As he made another tight turn, he saw Cameron's Banshee chasing down an enemy one: Cameron must have gotten behind him somehow. Lucky flew in that direction, and positioned himself to go head on towards the Banshee Cameron was pursuing. The enemy Banshee tried to maneuver out of the way, but Lucky moved in the same direction. Just before the Banshees collided, Lucky slipped out of the Banshee and fell towards the ground. Luckily Cameron took a dive under the collision to avoid it, and Lucky grabbed onto the wing. Cameron flew low and slow as Lucky jumped off and hit the ground. Lucky smiled, luckily still alive, and joined the battle on foot.

The Covenant had no where to run to, behind them the five elite Shadows had them trapped using guerilla tactics, and in front of them there were about 100 marines motivated and charging forwards. They could have surrendered, but the Covenant do not know of fear. As the Covenant were overwhelmed by the two sides, a Gold Elite jumped on a Ghost and started to take off to try to inform his superiors of their defeat. Castor saw him and threw a grenade ahead of him as hard as he could. The grenade landed nearby, and blew up a few feet away from the Ghost. The Ghost flipped and the Elite hit the ground. The Ghost tumbled and landed on top of him, trapping him underneath.

Castor ran over and looked down at him. The Elite showed no fear, just started to yell and growl at the human. Castor pulled his pistol and aimed at the Elite's head, almost feeling sorry that the Elite had no chance at all. The Elite yelled out some words that Castor took as obscenities. Castor slipped his gun back in its holster and took out his last grenade. He pulled the pin, shoved it unexpectedly into the Elite's mouth and stepped away. He watched as the Elite's upper body (especially his head) blew to pieces. He mumbled to himself..."Shouldn't have yelled at me that stupid son of a...."

The ranking Marine walked over. "I'm Colonel Jay Roberts. Who are you?"
Castor replied. "You can call me Castor. I have no rank."
Roberts gave him an odd look and replied. "Where are you guys headed? I hear that the Master Chief and the main crew is starting to regroup about 200 kilometers that way."
Castor thought about it. "You go on ahead. We'll get to our ship and catch up."
Roberts smiled. "You got it."

They split, and Cameron asked Castor, "Are we going to meet them there or catch up to them?"
Castor sighed and replied, "We aren't going with them. We need to get back to the nearest colony, even if its Earth. We have news to relay."
"Like what? That there are a band of marines stuck out here?" replied Cameron.
Castor looked at him. "No, that something is important about this ring thing, or else that Covenant wouldn't care that we were here. And I also certain gold and silver marks on Hunters and Elites showing that they are leaders. Plus, that tracker we put on the Covenant flagship will probably relay back their destination pretty soon. We need to head back and tell them everything we've gone through."
Cameron gave a heavy sigh. "Fine, and what do we do with Warrior-Boy over here?"
"Lucky? He can come with us. He has proven himself worthy enough."
Cameron shook his head. "Ok. But I still don't feel good about departing this place already. We are leaving all of these Marines here."
Castor held his forehead and looked at Cameron with saddened eyes. "This sounds bad...but even if we did stay, we'd do nothing but die out here. We can't possibly save all of these marines, and if we tried we'd probably die trying."
Cameron disagreed. "What are you talking about? Their moral is up, we murdered those Covenant today."
Castor held his forehead again. "That was to hold us until the main attack. When we left I tracked a load of Covenant fighters and such headed that way. All of the radar signals from the Marines and such are now gone...they were slaughtered. Our battle was not a battle, just a distraction so we think we had it won."

With that, they left...Castor, Cameron, Danny, Archer, Eddie, Justin, and now Neo...or Lucky as they call him. They charged the ship's energy and went into Slipstream back in the direction of Earth.

The Shadows - Part 8: AWAL
Date: 8 October 2002, 2:09 am

The group had reached Earth, undetected by all ships. Again, there were seven of them: six Shadows and Lucky. Lucky smiled...he was born and raised on Earth, in the city of Los Angeles. Castor was also from Earth, but he didn't remember. The ship sailed into the atmosphere of the planet and made its way to the headquarters of all mankind: Washington, DC

They landed on top of the Navy Intelligence building. There they walked down the stairways straight to the man running it all: Admiral Benjamin Rocks. They didn't even allow his secretary to call the office, they simply walked straight past the secretaries and guards, and Castor entered the office alone while the others waited outside.

Rocks looked up. "My God...what are you doing here? I thought you were on Reach."
Castor smiled. "Change of plans. We got out of Reach alive, barely though. And we followed the Pillar of Autumn to some ring out in the...ah hell, I forgot the system. I already sent you the coordinates of the system, and we need to send people there ASAP and..."
Rocks interrupted. "Castor, calm down. We already received your report and we are grateful for it...but unfortunately, we cannot send any rescue out to that ring, which other transmissions have confirmed the name Halo."
Castor sighed. "Halo? Believe me, nothing there even resembles anything that has to do with halos or angels."
Rocks again interrupted. "Listen Castor...I understand that they need help. We simply are not giving it to them. If we sent a ship or two out there, the Covenant would tear them apart along with Keyes and his people."
"What about Reach? Are you going to start a draft to strengthen our military? That's what I'd do." Castor leaned back in a chair and crossed his arms
Rocks stood up and glared at him. "Castor, what do you think I've been doing? I've been contacting all of Earth's major cities and they are getting on it. By the end of two weeks we will have millions coming to command new ships that are almost done being built. Hell, we even sent out emergency messages to rebels and gangs asking for their help. We're desperate, Castor, and I don't need you coming in here trying to tell me what to do."
Castor stood up. "Tell you what to do? I am simply stating facts and what you need to do."
Rocks smiled an evil smile. "I know what I need to do, Castor, and it starts with you and the remaining Shadows to no longer be secret."
Castor tilted his head. "What? I don't follow."
"I am simply sick of you guys always getting this information and not getting the credit...and I've decided from now on you should be out there fighting like the rest of our people, and getting credit for it."
Castor narrowed his eyes. "Wait...who is going to get your info then?"
Rocks leaned back and smiled. "That is classified."
"Oh give me a break, Rocks, WE are classified. You are just jealous that the teams that you favor don't do half as well as we do." Castor was now leaning forward on the table in his face.
Rocks stood up and pushed back Castor. "That is enough Castor! You are to go to the colony Porrodso and report to Colonel Dickinson. He will be your new commander."
Castor took one more attempt to cooperate with him. "Rocks, did you even look at the reports on our tracer and..."
"You are dismissed, Castor."
Castor glared at him and stood at attention. "Yes, sir."

Castor walked out pissed off. Report to someone else? Only person he "reported to" was some Intel guy who told them what to find. From there on out they'd figure out how to get it themselves. The thing bugging him the most was the Admiral's pride...he wouldn't even look at the tracer bug they placed on the Covenant flag ship. They could make a covert attack on the Covenant home planet and end the war...but no, the Admiral was too jealous of the group and refused to take advantage of the situation. Hell, Castor wouldn't have cared if the Admiral would look at it and take the credit himself, as long as he looked at it and it was noted. The anger was building quickly inside of

Castor left the office, and the others followed him down the hall. Castor suddenly stopped, and ran back towards the office. He busted through, and Rocks stood up in shock. Castor ran forward, grabbed the Admiral by the collar, and gave him a right hook across the jaw. The Admiral stumbled back, and Castor charged forward again. This time he took him and slammed him into the wall. The Admiral hit the wall and nearly fell over. Castor grabbed him again and brought him close face-to-face. He smiled, gave the Admiral the middle-finger, and threw him straight into the large wooden desk. The desk shattered down the middle as Rocks broke through it and it the ground. His lip was busted and the blood dripped down his neck and to the ground. He was barely conscious, laying in the pile of the shattered desk. At that moment, Castor knew his career in the Navy was over. He just assaulted a superior officer, and very severely at that.

If he couldn't be in the military, he certainly wouldn't be dead for it. He burst out of the room and sprinted down the hall. Military Police looked inside the room suspiciously, and then took off running after Castor. Castor opened the door to the stairs, and dropped floor by floor between the gap in the wall and staircase. The MPs ran down the stairs after him, calling in to lock down the building. Castor reached the bottom story and noticed the door was locked with a dead-bolt and with air compression. He couldn't get it open. He looked around and noticed a window one floor up. He quickly sprinted back up the stairs, hoping to get through the window. As he took the final approach on the window up some stairs, the MPs were coming down the corresponding stairs. He dove through and broke the window just before the MPs could shoot him. He fell two floors and fell into a dumpster. He jumped out, and noticed he was in an alley between two buildings. He looked down both ways, and saw more MPs coming down the alley from the East, and he instinctively ran the other way. He heard shots coming from the MPs, and they weren't stun shots...they were shooting to kill. He ran faster. As he came out of the alley, a large version of the Warthog pulled up...with Cameron driving.

"Get in, Castor!" Cameron yelled from the drivers seat.
Castor ran forward and jumped in the back. Cameron zoomed off, barely getting away before being seen by the MPs. Castor looked around in the Warthog and everyone was in it. This Warthog looked more like a 20th century Hum-V, with the top and everything.
Cameron looked back at him. "Castor, you've done it now. What happened?"
Castor was catching his breathe. It wasn't the physical running that he was breathing from...it was from being nervous from what he just did. "Rocks was going to shut us down and send us to take orders from some marines. He wasn't sending anything out to Halo, and he deleted the files we sent him on the tracer bug."
Archer nodded. "I would have done the same thing. I probably would have thrown him out the window though."
Cameron began to speak again. "Well, I've already gotten a hold of Havok. He's using his robots at our HQ to start loading our shuttle. We'll be ready to leave before we even get there."
"You better hurry, they probably are already sending people there."
Cameron smiled. "Havok is taking care of that too. He messed with navigational systems of the Navy's ships, and they'll be headed in the wrong direction. By the time they realize it, we should be gone."
Castor had to smile. "Havok never fails to amaze me." He looked around and saw that the marine Major, Neo "Lucky" Geo, was still with them. "What are you doing here still?"
Lucky smiled. "You think I wanna go back to report to somebody? If what I hear is true, I am assumed dead on Halo. I'm with you guys."

So Lucky unofficially became a Shadow. They arrived at their HQ, and noticed most of the essentials already loaded. They grabbed a few of their personal belongings and hopped in. Havok piloted the ship up and headed out of the atmosphere. The hologram of him appeared next to the navigational charts. He looked at Cameron.
"Cameron, we are on our way to the colony Porrodso just to check it out. Maybe Rocks had something planned for us there after all." Havok turned and looked at Castor, who was staring blankly out the front window. "Don't sweat it, Castor. If I could, I probably would have but a bullet into that fool years ago. Nobody likes him."
Castor gave a smile. It was true...Admiral Rocks was a two-star that nobody really liked. His only real talent was knowing who to kiss up to while working his way up. Other than that, Castor couldn't think of a soul who liked him.

Havok spoke again. "Reach is on the way to Porrodso. You want to drop by and take a look?"
Castor glanced at the AI. "For sure. Do it."

The Shadows - Part 9: The Beginning of the Porrodso Campaigns
Date: 11 October 2002, 5:55 am

They arrived at the Reach system...

Debris and such were still floating around the planet. Havok piloted the ship carefully through the area, being sure not to hit anything. A small "puddle" of blood passed by the window. As the ship turned, their focus turned towards the planet itself. It was black...and a bit thinner than before. The surface looked like molten rock from their view, and they knew that the chance of survivors was just about impossible.

"Havok, how close can we get to the planet?"
Havok analyzed some things. "The actual surface is way beyond boiling hot, but we can relatively close...I'd say about 100 meters, no closer."
Castor thought for a second. "Bring us in as close as possible. As soon as we start taking damage, pull us out."
Havok's hologram nodded. "May I ask why?"
"Come on, Havok, you have to know. Reach's facilities go FAR underneath the surface. There might be survivors down there."
Havok smiled. "Of course. I just wanted to see if you knew what you were doing...or if you were just guessing."

Castor gave out a short laugh. The ship came closer to the surface. At about 50 meters the ship put out an alarm, and Havok pulled up until they were out of danger...about 80 meters, and the ship's shields were still taking a beating. Each Shadow went in scanning stations (built on the bottom of the ship: small telescopes with different views to allow searching of wreckage and such). They switched to thermal mode, hoping to find a cool spot on the surface where there might be a possible entry point to the lower facilities. All of their sensors were very right because of all of the heat. They scanned for several minutes...nothing.

The ship pulled out and they all came back to the cockpit.
"What now?" Archer said as he sighed.
Castor thought. "I'm not sure. We just wasted our time coming here...where's the nearest planet?"
Havok analyzed. "Believe it or not, it is actually Porrodso. The one we were going to. Turns out its only about five days away if you went in a normal fighter at its top speeds."
"OK then. Head there. How fast can we make it?"
Havok analyzed again. "Using a bit of slip stream technique and such, I can get us there in an hour."

An hour later, they arrived and moved towards the planet. There were five full sized Covenant battleships scattered around the planet, and transports could be seen moving to and from the planet.
Havok was the first to speak. "Looks like there's quite a battle going on down there. Most of the survivors from Reach seem to have come here. And that adds on to the population already stationed here."
Castor thought for a second. "What time is it on this side of the planet?"
Havok replied. "It is about the equivalent to 1:00 AM on Earth."
Castor paused. "Bring us down in an area where we won't be seen. We need to help them and get people out of here."
"You got it."

__________________________________
It was a desert planet. The towns had been bombed a lot, and there was debris and wreckage everywhere. Marines were bunkered up in buildings and such, trying to be in a defensive stance for the night. These Marines had held out for about three weeks now, resisting the Covenant's constant effort to overrun them. They had wondered why they hadn't just glassed the planet and gotten it over with. Either way, they were holding out. Luckily for these Marines, the colony Porrodso was a major base for the Army as Reach was a major base for the Navy and Marines. The Army was also fighting nonstop, trying to reach the Marines stranded in the large abandoned city. All of the Marine escape ships had landed right in the middle of it, and the Covenant have been attacking that area as their main attack.

A team of Army Green Berets made their way through the shadows of the night, heading in the direction of the stranded Marines. Major Estes was leading this team of 20, with the objective of bringing this unit of Marines out. The streets in the area were dark and quiet. His team came to a corner and knelt down. He spoke through his headset. "This is Estes to Bellani. You read me?"
The Marine sergeant's voice came back. "This is Bellani. What's up?"
"We are on your position. We are at the Southwest corner. Which corner are you positioned on?"
The sergeant recalled where they were at. "Estes, we are on the opposite corner. The Northeast corner."
Estes sighed in frustration. It would be hard to cross the street in this situation, especially since he didn't even see any Covenant anywhere. "Bellani, we're coming to you. Hold your fire in our direction."
"Roger that, Estes."

The Green Berets moved as a team across the intersection, each kneeling behind debris and such to cover their team. As they were about half way across the intersection, plasma fire started to rain down on them from the roof tops. They all took cover behind any wreckage or debris they can find, returning fire when in position.
Estes dove and got behind a large piece of a wall that had been blown off a building and stuck in the ground. He got up on his knee and started to shoot in the different directions the plasma was coming from. He noticed the Marines inside the building letting out fire at the roof tops also. Estes continued firing at any shadow on top he could see. He heard a scream near him, and looked behind him to see one of his soldiers with a large plasma burn in his leg. Estes ran over to him and dragged him behind cover. He sat him up against the wall, gave him a gun, and ordered him to continue fighting from that position. He peeked out of his cover to start shooting again, and pulled back to barely dodge and plasma burst. He looked around...this ambush could end the night on a bad note.

_______________________

They silently climbed atop the roof, keeping low. They moved in the shadows towards the corner of the building where stationary guns were placed and Elites were positioned. They pulled out bits of wire, and they put silencers on their pistols. The cocky Elites had their shields turned down, relaxing a bit. Unexpectedly, each of them put a silenced bullet into the back of the Elite's head and dragged the bodies away. They quickly shot down the gunners in the stationary guns. They all got in the stationary guns and started firing at the other rooftops, eliminating most of their forces there. They noticed that more Covenant had already started to attack from all four directions on the street, crashing on the intersection. The Shadows finished cleaning up on the rest of the roof top threats, and headed back down for more.

They snuck around to the main attack from the East. The six Shadows and Lucky moved down the street behind the Covenant, about to make an unexpected attack from behind. Castor, Cameron, and Justin were on the right side and Archer, Eddie, Danny, and Lucky were on the left. They slowly and silently crept forward, staying on the sides of the street in the shadows. A Wraith tank was in the back of the attack, firing on the Green Berets in the intersection. Archer and Castor climbed up on it from both sides, opened the hatch, and putting a bullet into the driver. They threw the dead body to the ground, and Cameron ran forward and jumped in. He aimed at the large group of Covenant down the street on the other side of the intersection and fired. The blast came down and blew away most of the Covenant troops on that side.

A gold Elite looked back at them from their side and started yelling, but then he saw Castor and Archer on the sides of the Wraith. He gasped, and he started to yell...but he only got one word out as him and all the forces on that part of the intersection were blown away by the tank. Cameron jumped out and dropped a grenade inside. The two squads they made scattered from the tank, and it went up in flames. Castor, Cameron, and Justin ran forward to join the battle on the ground. The other four split into pairs and got to the roofs of two different buildings to provide additional help from above.

Castor ran into the intersection and found the man who seemed to be in charge.
"You in charge here soldier?"
Estes looked up from a wounded man. "Yes sir! Major Joshua Estes, sir!"
Castor saw and heard a plasma round miss him, and he ducked behind Estes's cover. "I'm Castor, nice to meet you."
Estes looked confused. "What's your rank?"
Castor thought for a moment. "I don't have one, but I'm more important than you. Listen, get a few of your men and get those Marines out of that corner. Start moving them down this street to the East."
Estes looked at his fatigues in search of some type of identification, then he looked up. "Yes sir! You two, come with me!"

Estes took off to the northeast corner to get the Marines, and Castor decided he was just going to help these guys get back to their HQ, then they would leave to do their own thing. He pulled out of cover and shot down a few Grunts and Jackals, then he went back behind cover to reload. He looked around and noticed that it didn't seem that dark anymore. All the shooting lit up the intersection and he could see around it as if it were day. He stood up and looked at all the directions...there was no one coming from the East, normal attacks from the North and South, and a minimal attack from the West. He got two Green Berets and headed towards the North to combat that attack. They ran over the wrecked streets in that direction, and a few Elites jumped over some debris and charged them. He shot at one Elite and brought it down, but the other two Elites shot the Marines. They came close enough, and they both punched Castor in the face. He fell to the ground and saw the Elite pull a plasma sword and raise it. Castor held his breath, until he saw a man with stab both Elites with daggers. The man then kicks both of them to the ground. Castor stands up and looks at him.

Castor almost gasped. "No way."
The man looked at Castor. "What the hell are you doing here?"
It was Josh.
Josh smiled at him. "I should ask you the same thing...but I told you I'd see you later."
Castor also smiled, but he was still confused. "How the hell did you..." He was interrupted as several plasma rounds zoomed by them and hit the ground around them.
"We'll catch up later!"
The two dove behind a pile of debris. Josh stood up and shot some rounds at a charging group of Grunts and ducked back behind the cover.
Castor looked at him. "So where's Willie?"
Josh reloaded his clip. "Willie is still in the Army Hospital at their base."
Castor thought for a moment. "Were you here stranded with these Marines? Or did you come with the Green Berets?"
Josh shot at a Jackal that ran by. "I dropped off Willie at the Army Hospital, grabbed as much ammo as I could, and came out into the city to see what I can do. I've been going back and forth over the past few weeks...checking up on Willie and helping out in the city. I just heard gunfire in this direction and saw the flashes. I actually just got here. Looks like you took care of a lot with that tank."
Castor shot at a few Grunts on the other side of the intersection with his pistol. "Lucky guess. But like you said, let's finish this convo later."
Josh smiled. "Right on."

They stood up and moved more to the North to help keep back that attack. The were bunkered down behind small trenches made of debris and ditches, and Estes ran over to him. He dove behind their cover and looked up at Castor.
"Sir, the Marines are ready to go. We just need a way to get the wounded out of here."
Castor looked around and thought for a moment. He told Josh to cover them, and he and Estes ran across the intersection to the Southeast corner. There was a classic Hum-V on its side, and with the help of Estes he pushed it back to the upright position. He ran to the driver's seat and took a look inside. He hotwired it, and the engine roared to life.
Castor motioned at Estes. "Get this Hum-V on the East side of this intersection where we are heading out. Load all the wounded you can into the backseats and the back storage area. It has plenty of gas so you won't have to worry about it."
Estes jumped in the driver's seat. "Sir, yes sir!"

The Hum-V moved through the intersection, snaking its way through the obstacles and such. Castor and the other three Shadows on the ground moved with it, giving Estes cover to take it across. After a few minutes the Hum-V rolled to a stop on the East side of the intersection. Estes got out and started to help the Marines move the wounded into the back.

The four Shadows regrouped in the center of the intersection: Cameron, Justin, Josh, and Castor.
Justin spoke first. "Castor, there were a few more Hum-Vs and Warthogs along the East and South directions on these streets. If we can get some over on the East, we can all drive out of here."
Castor nodded. "I know, Justin. You read my mind. Cameron, you and Justin get some of the Green Berets and work on that. Have them give you cover while you two drive them to the East of the intersection. When they are all over there, let us know and we'll regroup everybody back over there. Meanwhile Josh, you and I need to start moving any wounded in the intersection to the Northeast corner where the Marines are the strongest. They have most of the wounded there, but we need to find the rest and bring them there."
All three of them nodded, and they set out on their tasks. Cameron almost immediately jumped into the nearest Warthog while Justin got Green Beret back-up. Josh and Castor stayed low, searching for hurt men that may be partly buried under debris or dirt.

Half an hour later

Cameron parked and jumped out of the Hum-V. They had five Hum-Vs and four Warthogs on the East. Cameron put his headset on. "Castor, our getaway is set. How are you guys coming?"
Castor dragged a Green Beret through the intersection, heading towards Castor's position. "I'm coming your way with the last one. We should be out of here within a few minutes."
The Marines were loading the wounded and covering the loaders, while the Shadows and Green Berets were covering the Marines and Vehicles. Castor activated his headset again. "Archer, you guys might want to come down now. We are getting ready to head out, and we'd hate to leave you behind."
Archer took a shot with his sniper rifle from the roof above, dropping a Hunter to the ground. He reloaded his gun. "Roger that, Castor. We're on our way."
Archer and Lucky grabbed a rope the Covenant left on the roof. They tied it to a large pole and threw it over the edge. They slid down the rope and hit the ground about 10 meters away from the location of the vehicles. They ran over, as Eddie and Danny came from the other building also.
Castor ran to the front of the vehicles. "Are you boys ready to go?"
Bellani looked away from talking with Estes. "Yes, we're ready."
Castor nodded. "Tell your drivers to go. We'll jump on as you're leaving." He turned and started to walk back to the rear of the vehicles, back towards the intersection. "Green Berets! Shadows! We're moving out! Jump onto the vehicles as they pass!"

The Green Berets started to move East along the street, getting ahead of the "convoy" of vehicles for easy access. The Shadows stayed back near the intersection, setting C12 along that part. They planned to blow it to blockade the Covenant from following them for a period of time. After setting the charges for 30 seconds, the Shadows ran to catch up to the convoy. The vehicles had already caught speed, and they were on their way. The Shadows stopped running after them, knowing they couldn't catch up unless they'd give away their enhancements and most likely cause suspicion to arouse about who they are.

They took cover to the sides of the street as the C12 went off a few blocks away. They had a minute to rest before the Covenant jumped all over them.
Josh looked at Lucky. "Who's this guy?"
Castor smiled. "Thats Major Neo Geo of the Marine Corps. But call him Lucky."
Josh laughed. "A Marine heh? Hey Lucky, I'm Josh."
Lucky nodded. "So I'm told."
Castor interrupted the convo. "Anyway, any ideas on getting out of here?"
Cameron looked around. "Only the obvious: We run out on foot. Back to our ship."
Josh looked at Cameron. "What about Willie?"
"We can fly back to the hospital and wait until he's better. While we wait, we fight here."
Castor nodded. "I agree. Let's head out before these Covenant decide to..." Again, he was interrupted by plasma rounds erupting from the Shadows behind them. They took cover and started running through the streets, stopping to cover each other as they went. They never stopped moving towards their objective, and after a few miles of running they began to get worn down. They scattered around a corner of a street, taking the time to rest and fight at the same time behind cover. As if he could read their minds, their ship flew in from above, piloted by Havok. All the guns on it were shooting down all of the Covenant on the street. A rope ladder was dropped from the ship, and one by one the Shadows ran over and climbed it. When the last one got in, the hatch closed and the ship took off.

Apparently, Josh got a lucky break on Reach. When he was scrambling away with Willie, a plasma grenade was thrown at them. The Grunt was shot as he threw it, and it landed on another Grunt. The Grunt charged them with the attached grenade, but was shot before he could get close enough. Either way, the grenade was close enough to send both Josh and Willie sailing through the nearest door...and in the process they screamed, which explained the explosion and screaming Castor heard.

The Shadows - Part 10: Only One Place to Go
Date: 30 October 2002, 5:44 am

The group of black Elites walked down the street along the buildings, keeping out of site while they moved towards an area where more humans were trapped inside buildings. They saw the building about 50 yards ahead, and the leader could make out the upper body of a human standing watch near the front door. The leader smiled, and he turned to tell his Elites to charge...but he caught a glimpse of several out of place objects across the street, sticking out of some windows. He turned back to look at them, and then he narrowed his eyes to put them into focus out. His eyes widened as he realized what it was and just before he yelled to his troops to take cover, MGs tore apart the group of Elites in a matter of seconds. About 20 seconds after the massacre, the leader of the group opened his eyes and realized he was barely alive. Looking up, he saw about six humans walking amongst the carnage that they made. He saw their leader walk up to him and point the pistol at his head, and the last thing he noticed was a distinctive patch on his shoulder that looked like the shadow of a human...

The Shadows had been on Porrodso for a month. All of the Marines that were trapped and isolated inside the main city had been retrieved and taken to the Army base. The Shadows had not gone back to the facility more than twice: One to resupply themselves, and another to get Willie out of the hospital. With Josh and Willie back with them, Castor felt like he could do his job better. They had a perfect record for the month they spent there: all of their attacks and ambushes had been successful without any casualties. Earlier that day they had retrieved the last of the isolated Marines, and in doing so they ambushed a squad of black Elites that were going to attack the same Marines. Castor almost felt bad: every time he shot a helpless Covenant he felt a bit of sorrow. Especially that day. The Elite was the leader of the group, and he looked at Castor as if he didn't even want to fight and as if he just wanted to go home. Castor felt like he wanted to go home occasionally, but the problem was that he didn't have a home. The only place that would count is his childhood home...but that wasn't even a memory to him. He was thinking of actually using Havok to find his old home and his parents, and actually meet them and such. He never got around to it though.

Now that the Covenant attack on the planet had been pushed back, the Shadows didn't know what they were going to do. There wasn't anywhere for them to go, except for one last bit of unfinished business. Havok brought up the information on the tracker they placed on the Covenant ship all that time ago at Reach. The coordinates they received were far off the ship's navigational systems. Havok readied the ship to go, and waited for Castor's order. Castor stood there thinking for a moment, then nodded at Havok. Havok activated the slip stream, and off they went to what could be the Covenant home world.

When they arrived, nobody said a thing as they looked at the area. They couldn't even see the planet at first: There were too many ships orbiting to see. Castor almost laughed...it was a good thing they hadn't listened to him, because if they sent a strike force here they would have been slaughtered in seconds. The silence continued until Josh broke it.

"What is the biggest thing we have on this ship?"
Havok's hologram turned towards him. "What do you mean?"
"The biggest weapon. What would make the biggest boom?"
Havok analyzed the weapons on the ship. "We have several nukes. Those are the biggest."
Josh thought for a moment, and then continued. "I say we get on their planet, plant a nuke in each of their largest facilities, and then blow it. We can get away clean, and it would be like putting a needle in their heart."
Havok seemed like he wasn't paying attention, but he was and at the same time he was analyzing the Covenant's systems. "That is a good idea, Josh, but not good enough. If I'm reading this correctly, they have a HUGE tunnel going into their planet. This tunnel is used for mining certain diamonds and crystals. These crystals are what powers their ships, their plasma, etc.. It goes all the way to the core of their planet, where the most powerful of the crystals lay. If I'm right, a nuclear explosion down there would send that planet to hell...and possibly all of these ships around it."
Everyone was thinking about it. Castor looked at Havok. "Do you think we can do it?"
Havok glanced at him. "Under normal circumstances it would be easy, but these aren't normal circumstances. Our 'invisibility' on radars and such won't mean shit when we are flying down that shaft. I'm talking about auto-defenses and everything that will shoot at any movement not of their own. Plus, you are going to actually have to land down there to plant the nuke. Remember, these nukes aren't in our missile pods: They are sitting in our armory cabinets. Someone is going to have to get out and arm it. Then to get out would be even more dangerous...after they have sent out notices that you are there, there is gonna be a hell of a lot of resistance on your way back up."
Lucky laughed. "Not exactly a hit-and-run, is it?"
Josh glanced at him. "Shut up."
Lucky stopped laughing. "Yes, sir."
Castor thought for a moment. He then looked at Cameron, then back to Havok. "Which do you think would be able to pilot it better: you or Cameron?"
Havok thought about it, and replied, "Cameron can maneuver much faster, but I know when we're being shot at...Cameron should do it."
Castor glanced at Cameron. "Think you can handle it?"
Cameron smiled. "Piece of cake."

Their conversation paused for a moment as the actual planet comes into view for the first time. It would almost look like Earth, but it contained darker colors all with a sort of purple fade. The first thought that came to their heads were the purple color of their ships, which is the result of the purplish color of their planet. They all sat, looking at the planet, until Havok interrupted them. "Ok boys, about time you got ready."

The nuke would take about one minute to arm once they jumped off the ship to plant it. They could start to arm it on the ship, but it would still take that final minute for it to grasp the surface and lock itself up once the timer starts. The nukes were made to grasp the surface once they are set so they can't be moved, which in most situations would give them the advantage. But because of this time delay they had to suit up in their combat gear: Covenant troops would be all over them seconds after they begin to set it.

Each person began to prepare in their own way, since each had their own style and specialty. As the Shadows prepared, Lucky already was set with his issued equipment. He went to a computer on the ship with a keyboard and began typing an E-mail to his wife back on Earth...Lucky was the only one on this ship that had something to lose.

The Shadows - The Conclusion: Hit and Run
Date: 6 December 2002, 7:16 am

(Note: It was sort of a weak ending to the series in my opinion, but I just wrote it to bring it to closure so I can possibly start on another one.)

They were all ready to go. Lucky sent the E-mail and put on his gear. They would be entering the atmosphere within half an hour, and he needed to be prepared. Justin and Eddie were on the mounted guns on the sides of the ship, able to shoot a machine gun and rockets. Cameron was also suited up, but his main job was to pilot them in. The rest of them were ready to go, and Havok would begin to set the bomb through a remote control system...this is so that no one is left defenseless as they are trying to set it themselves.

The hologram of Havok appeared again, and called everyone's attention. They all stood quietly, allowing him to speak. "Good news is that we are going to kill most of those Covenant bastards...but of course, bad news comes along too. I was just spectating some Human transmissions...and I just discovered that Earth was destroyed, about a week ago while we were on Porrodso. That is why there are so many Covenant ships here: They are probably celebrating. I just wanted to let you boys know that you are the only hope that the Human race has for some sort of revenge." The hologram disappeared, and the group had gained a sense of pride: They would be the ones to justify what the Covenant had done to their race.

The time approached. Havok moved them around the planet near where this tunnel began, and Cameron took over and dove towards the planet. Everyone else braced themselves as they entered the atmosphere. After that the ride was relatively smooth for about five minutes, and then the tunnel came into view. Eddie and Justin armed their mounted guns, and Havok took controls of the weapons on the front of the vehicle.

Cameron was just about to make his dive until plasma shots were heard and their ship was hit. Cameron looked on the sensors and saw about ten Banshees trailing them.
"Shit! Where'd they come from?" Cameron yelled as he started to dodge plasma shots, but still getting hit by a few. "We are taking too many hits, we have to land!" Cameron exclaimed. Castor ran over to him. "What about the mission at hand?"
Cameron looked back at him and replied, "If we go down that tunnel, we won't have enough energy in this ship to stop. We'll plummet right into the ground!"
Castor thought, and gave him the go to land near the tunnel.

The ship lowered and slowly touched down about 50 yards from the tunnel going into the ground. The ramp lowered and everyone but Eddie and Justin came out with their armed weapons: Eddie and Justin manned the mounted guns on the ship still. As the Banshees passed over them, Eddie and Justin tore them apart with the guns. The men outside began setting up a barrier around the ship using some defense stuff stored in the ship. They set up a few gattling guns, several "sandbag" type walls, and a few more stuff. They knew that when the ground attack started, they'd go through something second to only Hell itself. About five minutes passed with no Covenant spotted on the ground.

Castor looked at Cameron. "Cam, go get those nukes and bring them out here. If we are going to die on this planet, we can still possibly just drop them into the tunnel itself, and maybe they will drop far enough.
Cameron nodded and went in the ship for the nukes, while Castor went over to Archer.
"Hey, see anything yet?"
Archer did not look away from his sniper scope, scanning the horizon, as he replied, "No, not yet...wait! Right there! Looks like a whole company...and over there too! Another company!"
Castor let out some brief obscenities, hoping they could get a break. "OK, Archer, start picking off their Elites and Hunters. If you can't hit them, hit Jackals. But make sure you hit something on every shot, we don't have the ammo to waste."
Archer nodded, and within a second the first shot went off.

Cameron came running back out, dragging about five nukes behind him. "This is everything we had left."
Castor looked, and counted six. He nodded and called to Josh. Josh came over, holding his gun in the direction of the coming invaders. "What's up, Castor?"
"You are the best warrior we've got. You and Cameron need to run over to that tunnel and hurl these things over. You're there for cover, and Cameron will take care of the rest."
Josh nodded and looked at Cameron. "Give me three, and you take three."
Cameron nodded and they headed off towards the tunnel. Castor slid the earpiece over his ear and adjusted the microphone. "OK, Havok, talk to me. What do we got?"
Havok's voice sounded. "Their first wave is three companies. Each company has about six grunts, three jackals, and one or two Elites. The next wave will be here in about five minutes, but you might want to hurry up because the whole Covenant military force is being alerted."
Castor sighed. "Roger that. Start thinking of someway to get out of here. Maybe some ground vehicles just to get to one of their ships." Havok acknowledged and faded out.

Castor ran back up to the nearest gattling gun. He looked at the small group of guys next to him. To his left was Archer, who was still shooting off sniper rounds, and Danny, who had a rifle and staring straight ahead. And to the right was Lucky, who was resting his own custom AR on the small wall put up, and Willie, who was still wounded a bit.
"Hey Lucky, you ready for this?"
Lucky glanced at him. "I really don't have a choice."
Castor looked at him deeply. Lucky had sent an E-mail to his wife. But now since they heard the rumor that Earth was destroyed, his wife may not receive it. "You know the rules of engagement, don't you?"
Lucky nodded. "Yes. Basically, don't fire unless fired upon.
Castor smiled. "Good boy. Well, those rules apply to you. You have limited ammo, don't shoot until they start shooting at us. This gattling gun has tons of ammo, so I can start shooting. But that gun you have there only has the ammo you brought with you. So conserve it."
Lucky again nodded.
Castor began open firing when the Covenant started sprinting at them. When the first plasma shot flew at them, Lucky start taking controlled semi-auto shots at them...and the final fight against the Covenant began.

Josh continued running with his gun in his hand, Cameron not far behind them, with the nukes strapped on his back. They reached the tunnel just as the heavy firing started. They could hear it, and it just made them work faster. Cameron began arming the nukes immediately, setting each timer for one hour. He then tossed each into the tunnel, hoping they would make it all the way to the bottom. Josh kneeled with his gun raised, ready to shoot at any Covenant that came near him.

Castor let out a whole chain of ammo onto the first wave, and basically wiped them all out. Lucky had used up one whole clip, and reloaded.
Archer called out. "The second wave is coming into view, and there are a lot more!"
Castor replied. "OK, keep shooting their leaders. And also remember to..." He was interrupted as the ship's mounted machine guns started firing. Castor adjusted his radio. "What's going on in there?"
Justin's voice was heard. "There are two waves coming from our flanks, one on each side. We are tearing them up, but we won't be able to hold them for more than ten minutes!"
Castor yelled out, and then replied. "Roger that, keep it up." And then he grabbed the handles of his gattling gun again.

Josh and Cameron hit the ground in a prone position as plasma shots started to whiz over their heads. Justin and Eddie on the ship's guns were helping, but they wouldn't hold them all off. Josh flipped his gun to semi-auto and started shooting at the incoming Covenant as Cameron pushed the fifth nuke over the edge into the tunnel.
Cameron tapped Josh on the shoulder. "One more to go!"
Josh shot off a few more rounds. "Hurry up!"

Castor began unloading ammo on the second wave of Covenant, ducking his head every few seconds as plasma flew by. Archer ducked as a plasma bolt hit the wall in front of him. He reloaded and yelled to Castor. "Castor! We're gonna be able to hold off this wave, but next wave they are going to be all over us!"
Castor wanted to panic, but he had to stay calm. "I know! Just keep it up!"

Cameron stood up quickly and threw the last nuke over. He hit the ground and loaded his own rifle. He tapped Josh on the shoulder. "It's done! Fall back to the ship!"
Josh nodded and pointed for him to go. Cameron stood up and started to run, and Josh moved right behind him, both of them shooting at the Covenant as they ran.

Castor reloaded the gattling gun, and heard Josh yell over the radio. "The package has been delivered, we are falling back to your position."
Castor replied as he reloaded. "Roger that. Havok, it's done. But how are we going to get out of here? Our ship can't take off, if you remember."
Havok's voice was heard. "Don't worry...this ship comes fully equipped. We got cushioned seats, full course meals, and even a few motorized-bikes for your ground traveling pleasure."
Castor smiled. "When will they be ready?"
Havok replied. "Give me five minutes. I packed them away a while ago, so I have to bring them out and get them ready. Remember though, after the bikes you still have to get to one of their ships to get out."
Castor replied. "I know, Havok. I know."

Josh was following Cameron when he heard a brief grunt noise. He turned to a see a bunch of Jackals with no shields and plasma "daggers" charging up. Josh stopped and unloaded his ammo into the pathetic things. His gun clicked, signaling his clip was out. He swung it over his shoulder and pulled out his knives. The next Jackal ran up and swung his dagger. Josh dodged it, and dodged another swing. He then kicked the Jackal in the gut, and swung a knife down into its back. He threw the body to the ground as two more ran up. He dodged both of their swings for several seconds, and then grabbed one's arm as he swung and threw him to the ground. The other one swung wildly, and Josh grabbed his arm and pulled him in, but not before countering the pull with an equal knife stab into the Jackal's chest. The other Jackal got up and charged, and Josh threw his knife at him before he got close. The knife caught the Jackal between the eyes, and the Jackal fell dead. Josh ran up and took the knife and put them both away. He then reloaded his rifle and shot the next wave of hand-to-hand Jackals.

The third, final, and largest wave approached from all sides. Castor looked at the horizon on all sides and saw the massive horde. The fear inside him grew, but eventually turned to anger as the Covenant got into his range. He began unloading as soon as he could, and the front lines of the Covenant started to drop, and then they charged. Castor did not flinch as plasma flew past him, he just kept shooting. Josh and Cameron had arrived a few moments earlier, and they did not hesitate to run forward and begin to shoot. The machine guns manned by Eddie and Justin were firing nonstop, dropping line after line of Covenant. Josh pulled out a rocket launcher and rested it on a small dent on the top of one of the walls. He took a shot at a few Elites charging with swords, and they blew to pieces. Josh shot another rocket into the crowd, and pulled his rifle again.

Castor kept firing, and Havok's voice came over his ears. "Hey Castor, the bikes are ready inside the ship. Don't forget to grab me when you leave."
Castor replied. "Roger that. We'll move out in about a minute."
Castor turned to the men around him. "Our ride out of here is ready! Cameron, get back and bring all the bikes out!"
Cameron nodded and ran inside the ship and began bringing out the motorcycles.
Archer shot his last round in his sniper rifle. "I'm out of sniper rifle!" He looks at the assortment of weapons he laid out next to him. He pulled a customized AR, the next best thing to his sniper, and continued to shoot at anything he could. "Castor, pretty soon they are going to get too close!" He ducked quickly as a plasma bolt flew by. "We need to get out of here now!"
Castor yelled back. "I know! Keep firing!" Castor contacted Havok over the radio. "Havok, do we have any more juice in our artillery guns?"
Havok took a second, and then replied. "Yeah. We have enough shots for one large strike."
"OK, good. When I pull you from the ship, I need you to put all artillery to create a path through this crowd. Got it?"
Havok could be heard again. "Roger that."

Archer was right, and the Covenant began to get in distance to almost use hand-to-hand combat. Josh slid a bayonet on his rifle and lodged it into a grunt trying to jump over his wall. He shot at a few Jackals running up, and then ducked when an Elite shot at him. The Elite ran up and Josh quickly shot it a few times and stabbed it with the bayonet. Archer had already switched to full auto and was letting out everything he had on the closer enemy. Castor finished off the last of the gattling gun ammo, and Lucky was fighting off large amounts of Grunts on his side. Willie was swarmed with Jackals, and fell to them as one of their shields slammed into his face. Danny ran over to help out, and killed the Jackals. He ran forward and checked if Willie was alive, but he was gone. Danny stood up to start shooting at the crowd of Covenant, but was met by a strand of needler ammo attaching to his head. He turned in shock at Castor, and his head exploded a second later.
Castor shuddered as he adjusted his radio. "Justin, Eddie, get out of there. We're leaving!"
They both acknowledged, and loaded their weapons as they left the ship. Castor ran inside the ship quickly and pulled Havok's chip from the ship's system. "Do it now Havok!"

The ship made a loud noisy as the artillery was shot off. Seconds later, it began hitting the ground in a line, clearing a path as the smoke cleared. All of them were already jumping on the motorcycles, and they sped right behind the exploding artillery. They had five motorcycles. Castor had his own, Cameron had his own, and Eddie had his own. Lucky was riding one with Archer sitting on the back, and Justin was riding one with Josh on the back.
They rode through the smoke, hoping not to be easy targets for the Covenant. Plasma bolts were flying through the smoke, but inaccurately. A few plasma bolts landed hits...on Eddie's bike. It overheated and spun out, throwing Eddie to the ground. Castor was about to turn around and get him, but he saw that the Covenant already surrounded him. And Eddie died fighting with the last bit of life he had.

They broke clear of the crowd and headed in the direction that Havok told them to. There was supposively a small camp where a transport shuttle was at rest. They felt invulnerable, until the sound of ghosts were heard. The ghosts were coming head on, and passed by too close for comfort. The ghosts turned around and gave chase to them. Josh looked back and saw the ghosts gaining on them. He signaled Justin to slow down real quick, and as the ghosts neared he leaped off the motorcycle to the rear, landing on the nearest ghost.
The Elite started to throw punches at him, but Josh dodged or blocked them all. He grabbed the Elite by the forehead and threw him off. Josh slid forward and took the controls, he hit the brakes and started to shoot the other ghosts from behind, destroying two and sending the last one running away. They continued towards the base.

When they arrived, the camp was deserted. Havok was right though, an old transport shuttle was resting there in working order. Havok told them how all of the Covenant in the camp left to attack them. They pulled up to the transport and started to load up.
Justin smiled. "That was way too easy." As if he cursed himself, several plasma shots hit him directly and instantly killed him. Dozens of Grunts and Jackals sprang from the small tents and ambushed them. Lucky was ready though, and eliminated most of them quickly as the rest of them hid in their tents again.
Castor yelled to his men. "Lets hurry up!" He looked to Josh. "How much time do we have left?"
Josh looked at his watch. "First explosion is going off in twenty minutes."
Castor jumped into the transport and loaded Havok into where he would fit. "Havok, figure out the controls, and tell us when you are ready." He jumped out of the ship to help hold off the enemy.

When Castor hit the ground again, his men were scattered around the ship taking cover. There were more Grunts and Jackals than before. No sign of Elites or Hunters. Archer was behind a box at the rear of the ship, shooting in a one-shot one-kill style. Josh was behind a few barrels, shooting at a bunch of Jackals about thirty yards across the camp. Lucky was right near the entrance ducked behind a boulder, now using his pistol as his weapon. Cameron was on the other side of the entrance, also behind a boulder but using his normal rifle. Castor ran to the nearest cover, a box near Lucky's boulder. He jumped behind it and looked at Lucky. "How are we doing?"
Lucky peeked around the boulder, and ducked back in when he was shot at. "We have good cover, but if any Elite's get here we are screwed."
Castor nodded. "Havok should have those controls figured out in less than a minute, we should be out of here soon." He popped out real quick and shot down a few Jackals trying to creep up, and then ducked away again as he was shot at.

Two minutes passed by and Havok's voice was heard in all of their radios. "Everyone load up. I got this thing in control."
Castor replied. "Roger that. Everyone rally near the entrance. There are plenty of boxes so you'll have cover!"
Immediately they all started to move towards the entrance to the ship. They all gathered behind a U-shaped group of boxes. Castor spoke to them. "OK. Everyone needs to pop up and start shooting at once, then first I want Lucky up. Then Archer and Cameron, then me and you Josh."
Everyone nodded, and they counted to three. They all popped up on three and started shooting whatever moved. Lucky jumped into the ship and got some cover in it, then he continued shooting. Cameron and Archer started up it, and out of no where three Jackals jump over the boxes and tackle Cameron and Archer. There is a brief hand-to-hand fight, that leaves Archer and Cameron crippled and the Jackals dead. Josh ran over to them. Archer's leg was blown off, and Cameron's whole body was torn up, except for his arms and head. He couldn't be moved at all.
Cameron looked up at Josh. "Get Archer and get out of here."
Josh shook his head. "We are all getting out."
Cameron frowned at Josh. "We both know I can't go. Plus..." He reveals about five sticks of dynamite under his coat. "I have a good-bye present for these bastards."
Josh looked at him very deeply. He nodded his head, and they shook hands for one final time. Josh grabbed up Archer and got inside the ship. Castor ran over to Cameron.
Castor looked at his friend, and Cameron said. "I'll cover for you guys. You get out of here, and go lead them to more victories. If you ever need guidance, just look up at the stars...I'll be with Danny, Willie, Mike, Eddie, and the rest of them." Cameron's hand came up, and Castor met it with his own hand, having his last moment with one of his best friends. Castor simply said. "Go with God, my brother." He yanked off one of the two dog tags, let go and climbed aboard the ship. He wanted to stay and die with his friend, but he had to go with his team. It was Cameron's last request. The ship's entrance closed up. And Havok piloted them away.

Cameron grabbed his gun, and took a few shots at a few Grunts that walked up. He then used his last bit of energy to light the dynamite he had strapped to him. The rest of the Covenant in the camp ran up on him, killing him. But they were met with a large boom that flattened the camp.

The ride on the ship was going smoothly, but Archer wasn't well. The wound on his leg was more severe than they thought, and it had cut through several important organs.
He was fighting to live, but died in the arms of his friend Josh.

A few banshees flew after them, but were shot down by the turret mounted on the shuttle. They went at the full speed away from the planet. Luckily enough one of their nukes reached the bottom of the tunnel. It blew, and wiped out 95% of the Covenant forces in the galaxy since they were all around the planet and in orbit.

100 children were first taken, and 20 made it to fight the fight as a Shadow. Now only two remain: Castor-88 and Josh-23. Alongside of them is an ally almost as good as a fellow Shadow, Neo "Lucky" Geo. The path they traveled was one hell of a ride, and the path ahead of them will be no different.

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